Time After the Tone
by Scarabbug
Summary: Six phone conversations in the dead of night prove that Yugi's friends really will go around the world and back for each other as monsters gather in the streets of Europe. Post Series AUish. Chapter 18: Teamwork.
1. Chapter 1

**So. Hi then. This is kinda old, but still decent. You can either think of this as five individual drabbles or as a story as a whole, either way it only sort of works. This may become the first chapter of something, one day, if I ever write more. For now, just think of it as five, rough, drabble-ish things with bad endings. **

**Disclaimer: YuGiOh and all related characters are copyrighted to Kazuki Takahashi and not to myself. This fanfiction is a work of fun and not intended to infringe upon this legal copyright

* * *

**

Time After The Tone. 

By Scarab Dynasty.

* * *

**Satoshi Avenue, Domino City, Apartment Twelve. 2:00 a.m. **

'Mai? Mai, wake up!'

'…Mff.'

Damn him.

'Look, seriously, wake up.'

She loves him _really_ she does, but damn him to the Shadow Realm all the same. Maybe then she'd be able to get a decent nights—

'Mai!'

She shuffles and turns over so she's facing in his direction, only he's not lying where he had been a few moments ago. Somehow, he's on the other side of the room, struggling ridiculously with various articles of clothing. It's still an amusing sight, even if she does see it on an average of once per month, or maybe more, depending on how often he oversleeps. It's not usually as dark as it is now, though, so there's usually more to see.

Hm. 'Ach! Okay, that's _so_ not my shoe, it's got a heel! And where are my _pants_ already? Mai!'

She sighs, a scrunched up blink reminding her of her failure to remove her mascara last night. 'Joey, hun'm _'wake_, what _is it_?'

'Phone just went off.'

She yawns. Re-buries her face in the pillow. 'S'nice, Joe. Tell 'em… leave message.'

'Wasn't just for you. And it wasn't that creep from the social call out, either. I think…' Joey stops looking for pants and she reacquaints whatever focus she actually has right now with his face. '…I think the King of Games just asked for my _help_. _Our_ help, really.'

_That_ wakes her up at least enough to manage a fairly intelligible: 'Wha—?'

'Yeah. _That_ King of Games. Only apparently he was too busy to come to the phone himself, so Yugi… you know the drill, where the heck are my pants?'

Mai gives Joey a long, unblinking stare. Which is quite an achievement, really, given the fact that her eyes are half filled with sleep and mascara and that he's staggering around the room in a manner resembling an (admittedly rather cute) monkey in his search for decent clothing. Her head is reminding her of last nights (or was it this mornings?) tequilas and she _knew_ she shouldn't have touched the things in the first place. '…Continent?

'Europe, some place called _Austria_.'

'Exact nature of problem?'

'Phantoms. Possessions and stuff. Or maybe the undead. He says he can't get close enough to tell without nearly havin' limbs ripped off.'

'Lovely. Threat of death?' By now Mai is out of bed herself and scrambling for a skirt which covers enough to be reasonable in a Central European Climate.

'Not as high as the threat of bein' possessed but there all the same.'

'End of the world?'

'Nah, not right now, but maybe the end of Europe.'

Well, okay, Mai bites back a yawn. Just Europe, then. She never much liked that corner of the world any…

…Who was she kidding?

She throws an old pair of underwear off in a random direction, vaguely thinking to herself something about how this, too, happens about as regularly as Joey sleeping through the alarm clock. She doesn't think she'll ever get used to either, really. 'Wonderful. When's the flight?'

'Done. He called Kaiba.'

_Another_ rather sudden wake up call, that. 'Wow, this _is_ bad, isn't it?'

'_Still_ not seeing pants here.'

'Oh, find them yourself, Wheeler, what do I look like, your wife?'

'Well you _would_, but you keep saying n—'

'Just hurry up and find the pants, Joey.'

She scours the desk for make up remover, finds it and makes a beeline for the bathroom. Joey trips over something on the floor. Whatever it is, he's now fairly mixed up in it and doesn't seem able to stand up again. She'd stop and grin, if they had the time to spare. Kaiba doesn't like to wait for long.

In an internationally-extended family like this one, a good night's sleep really _is_ totally out of the question anyway.

'…Joey, where did you just throw my high heels?'

* * *

**Taylor Residence, Domino City, 2:10 a.m. **

'Yeah. Tristan Residence here. Taylor, I mean… Tristan I… yeah. Me. Who's there?'

'_Tris? That's you, right?'_

'Urgh… whatimemizzit?'

'_You're sober, right, man? Tell me you're sober.' _

'Hm. Well, enough so that I don't wanna confess my undying love to anyone or anything but not so much that things aren't moving funny so… yeah. W-what's up?'

'_Uh, yeah, Mai's car's being repaired so we kinda need a ride somewhere' _

'Um, not sober enough for _that_.'

'_Oh… damn it. We really need your hand in this, man, are you _sure_ you're over the limit?'_

'Totally. Yeah. S'late, man, there's been work party over here. Tariku was dancin' on the tables an' everything…'

'_Okay, fine, we'll come around. Where do you keep the keys?'_

'What?'

'_The keys, Tristan! For the motorcycle! I'll drive it.'_

'Guh? But Joe, you can't drive a motorcycle. 'Sides there are three of us, right?'

'_So? I learn fast! Besides, we have to get to Kaiba Corp in the next hour or else he cuts us off.' _

'Wait, Kaiba? Which Kaiba? Jerk Kaiba or… or little, not-so-jerky-kinda-cute-Kaiba?'

'_Actually I don't know. Probably the second one, point is we've gotta get there like now. And then we have to get to Austria.' _

'Whoa, hang on, lemme get a glass of water or something, what're you talking about _now_?'

'_You've seen the news, right? The weird flying people an' the creeping buildings on the International Channel? That's where Yugi is right now.'_

'…That's real?'

'_Of course it's real, man, it's on the news! Almost everything that's on the news is real!'_

'Yeah, but… kinda thought that was all the alcohol talking. You're sure he's in—'

'_Yep.'_

'And you're positive we have to be—'

'_Uhuh.' _

'…Kaiba?'

'_Yeah, him. Look, I'm coming round so for God's sakes be decent.'_

'Uh, sure. Decent. Yeah… there's gonna be issues there, man.'

'…_Tristan, I'm ashamed of ya.' _

'Oh, bite me, Wheeler.'

Click.

* * *

**New York City, Carmen Street Apartment Block 3, 1:00 a.m. **

When she arrives home after teaching the older evening class, there are a total of ten messages on her answering machine which, frankly, only usually happens when she hasn't been able to pay the bills or if Yugi or Yami has been in an unusually communicative mood.

Today it's neither.

'_Hey, you're reached Téa Gardener's home line. Sorry I can't take your call right now but leave a message and provided you're not someone trying to sell me house insurance again, I'll be sure to get back to you. Thanks!' _

Click.

'_Téa? Yeah, it's me here. Sorry about the time difference and all, I hope you're not asleep. How's America? Uh, wait; hang on going off topic here. Bad time for asking that stuff. After all you can tell me all about how the good ol' Little Apple is when you get where we're going. Cause… well we're going there and Yugi's in trouble and we're all in a jam 'cause of it, which you probably already_ know_ about, if you've seen the internet because—'_

**Beep**.

Click.

'_Wow, that thing doesn't give you much time to talk, huh? Sorry, let's start over. For one thing, when I said it was "me" before, what I meant what that it's _Joey_ over in _Japan_, by the way. Well, actually by the time you get this we might already be halfway to Europe, so don't be surprised if I don't—'_

**Beep**.

Click.

'_Uh yeah. Me again. Still Joey. We're still having a problem here and it's not just with your answering machine. To be more specific, the problem's halfway round the world in Europe, where Yugi is right now. He called me an' then we both called everyone else. I know that you probably have this really busy dancer's schedule and have loads of stuff to do but we figured we might kinda need you, so I'm sending this message to check tha—'_

**Beep.**

Click.

'_Damn it, Téa how am I supposed to deliver an important message if that damn machine of yours keeps cutting me off in the middle of a—'_

**Beep.**

Click.

'_Oh for crying out loud, this thing must be broken if it's—'_

**Beep. **

Click.

'_Téa I really need to tell—'_

**Beep. **

Click.

'_Gah! Austria National Airport! End of the world! Yugi's screwed! Help! Get there—'_

**Beep.**

Click.

'—_by five am, or… or be square or… something! Damn it—'_

**Beep.**

Click.

'_An' throw this freaking machine in the garbage while you're at it for cripes—'_

**Beep.**

Click.

'—_Sakes!'_

**Beep. **

Whir.

Silence.

* * *

**Domino University Residents Area: Twelve, Apartment Three. 2:23 am. **

Phone.

Phone ringing. Now. In the middle of the night. Or possibly some time _after_ midnight so that would make it early morning, not that he's concerned about the details.

But yes, phone ringing, _very_ loudly in a way that's probably going to wake his flatmates if he doesn't hurry up and answer it. He waits patiently for it to stop. It doesn't.

Answering phones in the middle of the night is a habit he's never been able to grow out of before (probably something to do with the tendency of certain evil spirits to use them as a channel through his subconscious) so perhaps, then, it's only slightly surprising that Bakura no longer leaps out of bed in a panic at the first hint of a ring.

Yeah. Bad. Phones are bad. No doubt somebody like Kaiba invented them and never thought to give them "off" buttons. Which meant Bakura is reduced to scrambling for the thing for several seconds. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your perspective) whoever it is making the call is a rather patient individual…

Which actually narrows the list of possible callers down to exactly one.

'Nggh… H'lo?'

Someone answers, and Bakura learns that not only is it a call from the other side of the planet, it's also being put on reverse-charge. Typical.

Many apologies follow.

Mm. No. No, s'quite alright, Yugi, really. I… what?'

Well, not _quite_ the other side of the planet, precisely, but it might as well be, as its culture is so inherently different to the one he's used to.

For now, though, he doesn't care.

He hears a word that sounds disturbingly like "Australia," and then another which sounds rather like Yugi is talking about stick insects.

'Insects? Hang on, Yuugi, what?'

He blinks several times to convince himself that what he's hearing hads absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he's still half asleep. 'Oh, right, you said _poltergeist_s… bad connection, I'm afraid.'

'…'

'Uh, Yugi _wait_, go back to the bit about Austria. _What_ was that about a phantom epidemic?'

'…'

'Oh, I… of course. Well I…'

He's pulling himself out of bed by now and a flatmate is banging on the walls. Ah well. He can apologise later.

'…'

'No, I'll be there. I know I don't _have_ to be but… It's tomorrow. No, no, it's just a practise exam I really don't _have_ to be there.'

'…'

'Yugi there's honestly no point in arguing with me I… Oh, hello, Yami! How's Europe? As I was saying to Yugi there, my determination has increased ten-fold since I met you two, so I am most _definitely_ coming out there. Don't feel guilty, really there's no need. I'm awake now and it's entirely my decision. See? Independent thought and everything. Bakura isn't even in town… no I won't be telling him about this.'

'…'

'I'm very glad to hear that you're proud of me, Yami.'

'Oh, and Yami…?'

'…'

'You know, I really _would_ be much better off as a coward. Yes. See you in a few hours.'

Click.

* * *

**Kaiba Corporation, Domino City, 2:22 am. **

'_Hi! This is Yugi Mutou's mobile line… not that he has a _non_ mobile line right now, but anyway, if you really need to talk and I'm not here… which I guess I'm not right now, then you can leave a message after the beep and I'll get back to you at the—Oh good grief, Yami, be careful with that oil caske—!_

'_Ooh, damn it, not again…' _

**Beep.**

'Look, Yugi. Or Yami… damn it, whichever of you gets this first. Why the _hell_ do you think I'm an international taxi service? I arrive home at one-thirty a.m. and _what_ do I find? Three answering machine messages requesting permission to use our long distance _aircraft_!

'I don't care if there are demons running rampant in the streets of Paris again, never mind Austria. Not _every_ end-of-the-world crisis is something we –or more specifically _I_– have the time or the energy to _deal_ with. Can't you leave it to the _authorities_ for once, for goodness sakes? I'm trying to complete resource mergers here. I am not carrying your buddies halfway around the globe so that you can stop _another_ apocalypse. Tell them to get their _own_ transportation!'

Click. Hang up.

Dial, dial.

'…Hey, this your line, mutt? Yeah. Look… The craft's in the hanger now, so you had better get the hell over here already.'

Click. Hang up again.

'Fucking heroics…'

* * *

**Cairo, 8:00 p.m.**

She's not at all surprised by his dramatics when he picks up the phone. She remembers him too well from Battle City and beyond. He always was… enthusiastic.

'_Téa? Téa, girl, is that you? Man where've you been I'm been at this phone for hours, we're halfway there already! They're starting to shut down the _airlines_ over there, if you don't get on a plane soon then—'_

'Ah… my apologies, I believe you have me mistaken for someone else, Joseph.'

'_What? Wait, Ishizu, is that you? Aw, damn it, I thought you were Téa. Thought I missed her call and I just pressed redial!'_

'Sorry to disappoint you but I thought it best I called and Yugi's line was unsurprisingly busy.'

'_But aren't you in Egypt, or something? How did you know to call, anyway?' _

'I watch the international news, Joseph.'

'…_Whu?' _

She suppressed a soft sigh. 'There are incidents of various people leaping from tall buildings and gaining supernatural un-powered flight over in Europe plastered all over the Cairo News broadcasts. Also, the incidents are penetrated by multiple storms of what viewers have described as "black swirling energy". I made the connection fairly quickly.'

'_Uh… right… so can you help? You know what's going on here, right?'_

'I'll have to tell you what I told Yugi, Joseph… I don't have the foggiest.'

'_..Great. Even the ancient mystic lady is stumped. Now I _know_ we're all screwed.' _

'I am far from _ancient_.'

'_No offence, man. I'd offer a compliment but Mai's right besides me and she'd probably not like it much for me to comment on the assets of another lady when I'm around her, y'know?'_

'…Yes. This would be the old "who is wearing the trousers?" relationship issue that's so commonly spoken of in other cultures, would it not?'

'_Well it was nearly not _me_, that's for sure! Damn things weren't _anywhere_ I looked for 'em!.'_

'…I won't ask, Joseph.'

'_Thanks. Seeya in Europe?'_

'Most likely. Until then.'

Click.

She hangs up, without waiting for a response and leaves the building where the phone booths are contained. It's not really late enough to be growing as dark as it is right now in the sandy streets of Cairo.

Ishizu knows it's going to be a long few days.

* * *

**Austria, Vienna, 3:00 a.m. **

Yami's face is dirty. He's also bleeding, but Yugi can't tell where from, exactly, and since it's been going on that way for at least an hour, he's trying to regain his composure and remain calm about the fact.

'They can't get in, right?'

'Quite sure,' Yami sits down. Which is good, because Yugi was about to _make_ him take a seat anyway. 'They don't… give me command of darker elements via my name usage for nothing, you know. The building manager…' he hesitates, and Yugi tenses in preparation of what's coming. 'I'm sorry, Yugi. I wasn't face enough,' his fists clench tight around the puzzle about his neck and Yugi reaches out to touch Yami's shoulder. 'Yugi?'

'…Yeah?'

'You're alright?'

'As much as anyone _can_ be. We're… we'll be okay. We know what to do.' He squeezes Yami's shoulder that little bit tighter and a part of them both wishes they were still the same person. 'I've solved worse puzzles than this before, haven't I?'

'Just try not to pass out again.'

'I did _not_ pass out.' Yugi gives him a playful scowl. Another thing that's surprising is that they still have the ability to joke.

'I know, Yugi. I know.'

Yugi realises he's still holding the phone off the hook and quickly places it down. In just a few minutes it's going to start ringing again. This is something he knows for certain, because he _knows_ they're going to get back to him.

Somewhere outside, a chilling scream bursts through an otherwise silent Austrian evening.

'It's a long way,' Yami says, evenly. 'All the way from Japan to Europe. The flight would take several hours if it's even within their capabilities…'

Yugi looks up and gives him a small but infinitely reassuring smile. 'They'll be here.'

Yami believes him.

* * *

_Ring. Ring._

Click.

'…Hello?'

* * *

**Reviews and concrit are much appreciated. **


	2. Chapter 2

**My lord, I actually _continued_ this… Lord only knows where it'd going but, I hope you all enjoy it anyway. My inner 'shipper is kinda starting to make her appearance. Standard Disclaimers apply.

* * *

**

Chapter Two.

**New York City, Carmen Street Apartment Block 3, 2:00 a.m. **

"_Hey there, you've reached the Joey Wheeler Mobile Hotline. I'm kinda busy helpin' save the world, kicking duellist ass or maybe out getting burgers or something right now. Leave a message!"_

**Beep. **

'Joey? It's me, Téa. I'm _so_ sorry I missed all those calls, I was at my late night training and… and what do you mean Yugi's in _Austria_?! I've seen the news, Joey, its total _chaos_ over there. Several English channels have gone out on the neighbours' satellite TV and the last I checked they were shutting down all the flight lines. I can't even seem to get through to Yugi's phone so I have no idea what's happening there and… Listen, I have no _idea_ how I'm going to get to—'

**Beep. Click. **

'Uh, okay that's _just_ as annoying as he made it sound.'

**Beep. **

'Joey? It's me again. In the time since the last message I had the neighbours round. They're saying the channel tunnel's being inundated with shadow magic. That means whatever this is; it's spreading outside of one country, right? And spreading far, from the sounds of it. It's only a matter of time before…

'Joey, I don't know where you guys are right now but please, try and stay safe and don't—'

Beep. Click.

'…God _Damn_ It.'

Beep.

'Look, Joey, just… I know you're probably already on your way there, but just call me back, okay? I don't know how I'm going to do this, but I can't leave you guys out there alone in all that mess. I _can't_ leave Yugi out there. I don't understand why he didn't… well. Help me out here? _Please_ call back.'

**Click.

* * *

**

**Somewhere over the North Pacific Ocean, 1:49 am. **

There are no other crafts in the runway when they arrive at Kaiba Corp's private landing strip. And no crew or workers either, unless you counted Kaiba.

'Whoa, whoa, hang on a sec. What the hell's _he_ doin' on the plane? I don't remember bookin' into Jerk-Class.'

'It _is_ his plane, Joey… and his air field, for that matter.'

'Don't you start turning traitor on me, 'Kura. I'm serious. Who the hell asked _him_ to come?'

'Well its likely Yugi mentioned it to him at some point. Otherwise, I believe he must have invited himself.'

'Oh. Wonderful. Okay fine, shadow magic and freaky soul stealing demons in Australia—'

'Austria, hun,' Mai corrected. 'We're going to _Austria_. _Europe_, not Oceania. And I hope to God that somebody brought earplugs with them because from what I hear, these high class jets are fast as hell and shoot through the atmosphere like a Harpy Lady on caffeine.'

'Ah. Very…Interesting metaphor that one, Mai.'

'Thanks. Say Bakura, you're European by origin, aren't you? It would explain the accent.'

'Yes but Austria is… perhaps a little far out, regardless. We're still going to have difficulties concerning language unless any of us happens to be familiar with German.'

'German, huh? Heh. Sprekanze deutschen? Or something…'

Bakura blinked. 'What did Tristan just say?'

'He's being an intellectual drunk. Lots of people do it. He's also failing because I'm fairly sure that's _not_ how you say "do you speak German?".'

'Whatever. Look back to the point, man, all of that stuff I can handle. But _not_ him. _Not_ right now. Not for ten whole freaking hours without any respite.'

Seto sighs and rubs his forehead impatiently with a finger. 'Like mister shy-and-impersonal said, Wheeler. It's _my_ damn plane. If I'm sending you people halfway around the world to deal with some ridiculous crisis of supposed supernatural proportions of my own freely given generosity, then I'd _like_ to see exactly what my cash is being wasted on. For all I know you're planning to use this for a shopping trip to the Big Apple.'

Tristan's eyebrow raises slightly. '…So Yugi's in Australia or… or this Austria place facing down Gods only knows what evil forces of… evilness, and yet _you_ think we're gonna take this thing on a day trip to New York?'

Seto stares, conscious of a vague slurring coming from Tristan's general direction. 'Please, _don't_ tell me you're not even sober.'

'M'kay, I won't tell you.'

'Oh for _Christ's_ sakes, Taylor.'

'Hey, _seven day week_, man, cut me some slack.'

Bakura is wincing and clearly wishing for a long lost bed. 'Can't we all just agree to disagree for now and move right along?'

'For once I agree with Bakura. Now can we tell the pilot to begin take off procedure, or do I have to throw you all out on the runway?'

'Aw who're you foolin', Kaiba? Yugi wants _help_ here, not more challenges to stupid pointless duels that we all know he's gonna win anyway.'

'Funny I was under the impression that lending you the _transportation_ without which it would be all but impossible for you to even _get_ to your precious champion gave me certain _privileges_. Of course if you're really so adverse to my assistance, mutt, I could always make you pay the fuel-and-loading fees. I suppose you all _have_ the twenty thousand yen necessary to soup this machine up for a single transpacific crossing? Not including the return flight, of course.'

'…Nggh.'

'I thought as much.'

'Huhm. You know you may have some smart ass _privilege _things for lending us the plane an all, Kaiba, but know what? You _still_ suck.'

'Just sit down and shut up already, Tristan. I think you could use the upcoming several hour journey to sober up. And don't even _think_ about changing your mind when we're halfway across the freaking continent because I'm sure as hell not detouring to drop you off in Egypt.'

'Fine, fine. That wouldn't be so bad, though…Could visit the pharaoh's ol' homestead, you know… hey, maybe we could all go there after this.

'Shut _up_, Taylor.'

'S'hup 'self, Kaiba. So how long's it gonna take us, anyway? To get to jolly ol' Europe?'

Kaiba 'We're not _going_ to Austria yet.

'…Come again?'

'What? Sorry, Kaiba but I could've sworn the possible end-of-a-continent-situation was somewhere in that general direction.'

'Brilliant observation, Valentine, but we're going to New York.'

'…Uh?'

'I thought he said no shopping…'

'Shut _up_, Taylor.'

* * *

**New York City, Carmen Street Apartment Block 3, 2:00 a.m. **

'I don't care which transfers you put me on, okay? Whichever is the _fastest_.'

'…'

'Lady , believe me, you have no _idea_ about my stress right now. And yes I'm sure that's what they all say, and I know you're a person too and every good luck to you in that but that doesn't change my problem and lets not start an equality of customer services campaign just now, okay?'

'…'

'Okay okay, I apologise, but… but I'm serious it's so urgent I get there right now I can't even begin to describe it. They're missing a left smiley eye, it's an _important_ part!'

'…'

'Yes I'm sure it doesn't make any sense to you but it does to me and I have to get to the other eye and the two parts of the lips right now and… oh, god this is starting to sound ridiculous, I knew I should've gotten more sleep last—'

'…'

'What? Um, no, no I can't pay by credit, but I'll pay it, okay, I don't care what it costs.

'…'

'Well… well then whatever is available, I'm serious I _have_ to get there right now.'

'…'

'Um. Okay, so the Austrian international airport is refusing to accept any incoming flights at the moment which are not military oriented. I've already _grasped_ that. Then can you get me on a _military_ plane? I'll sit in the _cargo_ if I have to.'

'…?'

'Yes I really am that desperate. Can anyone do it?'

'…?'

'What? Well if they aren't even _sending_ any military planes out there why did you even _mention_—urgh, never mind. Look I—'

'…'

'Well _who else_ am I going to ask about getting a plane? You're a _helpline_, aren't you? It's what you do, you get people on _planes_, and right now _I_ really, _really_ need to get on a plane to _Austria_. My English isn't _that_ bad, madam!'

'…'

'Look I apologise, I didn't mean to snap, but I really don't _care_ what the government thinks.'

'…'

'Yes.'

'…'

'No I… it doesn't exactly _work_ that way I— no I'm _not_ New York native. Look I don't think this is the time for me to be discussing the coolness of my accent or… oh fine, already, I'll try another airline, goodbye!'

Click.

Hang on.

'God _damn it_ I _hate_ airport help-lines.'

* * *

**Somewhere over the North Pacific Ocean, 1:49 am. **

'…Y'know what they should call us?'

For the fifty-eighth time since they boarded the jet and began the climb to ten thousand feet, Seto Kaiba asks himself what the living hell he is doing here. There's a quiet sigh from the seat behind him.

'I don't know, hun, what should they call us?'

'The Scooby gang!'

'The _what_ now?'

'Man and here I was thinkin' you knew weird stuff like this with all your international duelling and stuff. You know, like that weird American cartoon, where those kids solve all these weird mysteries with the dogs an' the cute chick… we solve mysteries with creepy villains an' bad guys, right?'

Tristan looks up (somewhat less intoxicated than earlier. Due to find out exactly how bad a hangover feels even when you don't lose conscious between it and the initial consumption. Serves the idiot right. 'Which chick? Y'mean the one with the specs?'

Kaiba considers making short stab about the obvious identity of the dog's role amongst the present company but it feels too much like cracking a joke and at this moment in time, he can't be bothered with the repercussions it would have amongst aforementioned present company. As if Kaiba actually making a joke would be a kind of sin against all nature, or something. It also says something severe about the severity of their current situation that Kaiba has been reduced to thinking Joey Wheeler's girlfriend might be the most intellectual person he's currently sharing an aircraft with.

'So…are we in Austria yet?

'We're not even _going_ to Austria yet, Tristan.'

'Oh… then where are we going?'

'New York,' Kaiba sighs, painfully. 'We're picking up… your friend, Gardner, _remember_? That is, _if_ she's found it in herself to step out of her ballet pimps for a few damn minutes and get to her answering machine.'

The silence that follows only lasts a few minutes, but that's long enough for Kaiba to start trying to relax, and then regretting even the attempt when Wheeler's dumb head appears through a gap in the chairs.

'So why are you doin' this, anyways Kaiba?' Kaiba doesn't want to afford him the patience of a reply, so he doesn't offer one. The mutt apparently isn't deterred, though. 'Only I love Téa and all. But _she's_ not the one who could be up to her eyeballs in zombies over in good ol' England…'

'I'll have you know that on a jet like this the time difference between New York and Austria will be all but negligible anyway,' Kaiba muttered. 'It doesn't make much of a difference if we stop for fifteen minutes in another airport to pick up little Yugi's girlfriend.'

'That in mind, its still time. Every second counts in things like this.'

'I'm fairly sure Yugi if anyone is going to be pleased to see her. Nothing of the sort Wheeler, but if you're _going_ to place some level of importance on a ring of permanent ink on your hands then you're going to want all _four_ of you if you're going to be effective.'

'Uh… no, that's kinda where you're wrong, Kaiba.'

Kaiba forgets to make a smart remark settling instead for an only vaguely wry: 'Oh? It works with the _Power of Three_ then, does it?

'Funny,' Wheeler scowls but doesn't react nearly as severely as he usually does. 'Okay sure, Yugi'd _like_ Téa around right now, we _all_ would. She's like glue, yeah? So for stuff like this it'd be cool to have her around. On the other hand, we're talking a lot of supernatural evil crap here. Yugi wouldn't want her _near_ that, not after all the other times. You ever notice how the creepy mind possessing guy _always_ went for her? Well, when he wasn't goin' for _me_, anyways. It's like she's a bad guy magnet, or something.'

Kaiba raises both eyebrows, vague interest changing to a combination of irritating curiosity and piqued amusement.

'Anyway, why'd you think Yugi called me instead of her? He'd just tell her to stay in New York, out of harms way. And you know what? That's what I'm thinking too. I'm thinking she don't deserve to be pulled outta that dream life she somehow got the chance to live in just to go blowin' up dead guys in the south of Europe.' He blinked. 'Shoulda thought about that before I told her she should try an' get to Austria in the first place, really… Crap.'

'Bit of a cock up on your part, then?'

'Shut _up_. You're meant to be the smart ass executive freak here, Kaiba.'

'Look, it doesn't _matter_ if she's not invited. Gardner would still probably find out and tag along anyway doing that ridiculous togetherness stuff that she always does and forcing you into yet deeper interdependence…' …_and_ refuse to talk to you if you all treated her with kiddie gloves, he adds silently in his head. And they thought he didn't observe Yugi's friends. 'She'd _want_ to be there and would no doubt make your lives a misery afterwards whether or not the world still existed.'

'Still not the point.'

…Witty today, isn't he?

Seto takes a deep breath, mentally recites several expert chess strategies in his mind, and opens his eyes again to face another onslaught of what from his perspective is little more than sheer inanity.

'Listen. If it's so imperative you know the answer before your life can continue…' (and possibly end) '…Then the reason I am flying you over to New York international airport and to hell with flight regulations is not because Yugi would _want_ her there, but because you _need_ her there. Because it's bad enough that I'm flying you all into what –if the problem hasn't been sorted by now– is probably very much a veritable no man's land death zone without at least ensuring our numbers are at least one person higher, lest we all die anyway. Because you need,' he snorted. 'Your _circle_.'

Joey blinks at him slowly and carefully. Just as Kaiba suspected, he thought. He'd lost him…

'You trying to tell me you actually believe that?'

…Or perhaps not.

'No, I don't. Not where I'm concerned. Placebo effect or not it sure as hell seems to do something for you and while I'm not one for encouraging delusions, interdependence is possibly the only think that's keeping you people _alive_ right now,' he settles back in his chair. 'I'm taking you in the plane,' he continues, very slowly and carefully so that the mutt didn't get lost along the way and leave Kaiba having to explain it all again. 'Because I _owe_ Yugi. Do you understand? In fact, don't even bother to answer that one, Wheeler. I honestly don't _care_ if you understand or not. After this we're even until the next time comes to reclaim my title. Anyway, it does _something_. I can't deny the fact that you're all still _alive_ after all when you should have been killed ten times over in the last twelve months alone.'

'Uh… Sure. Whatever, Kaiba.'

Wheeler probably doesn't believe him. Or if he does, he doesn't really care and Kaiba can easily return that nonchalance athousandfold.

He decides that this would be a good time to retreat to the cockpit and stay there for the rest of the flight harassing the pilot.

'…Man, that one _so_ wasn't the hot chick. The hot chick was the red head with the weird fashion stuff!'

'Aw c'mon, that cartoon was made at like the turn of the century, or something; _all_ fashion was bad, 'especially in the Americans.'

Seto Kaiba doesn't believe in a God like deity. He still prays for more willpower, or for the immediate removal of all of their voice boxes. Whichever way is the fastest.

* * *

**Austria, Vienna, 4:00 a.m. **

'Yugi…'

'Hm?'

'Phone line reception. We've lost it. Completely'

'…Crap.'

'Exactly what I was thinking. The lines must've been cut outside. All the psychic shockwaves from the possessions running around the streets are playing havoc with the electricity.'

'…Yami?'

'Hm?'

'We've also lost the water.'

'…Crap.'

'Since we're getting so good at echoing each other today, I'm assuming that you're also thinking that we _really_ have to get out of here?'

'Yes, but the airport is a long way from here I seem o remember the journey took forty five minutes. How do we…'

'…Get there? I have no idea whatsoever but if you've got a plan I'd love to hear it.'

'Hm. If this were a duel—'

'But it's _not_ a Duel, Yami. It's _not_. It's a _Shadow Realm unleashing_ without so much as a common-level trap card in sight and we can't shut it down or de-possess all those people just by brandishing a card at them! So… so just…'

'…'

'I'm sorry, Yami, I didn't mean—'

'It's alright. You're right, anyway, I…' he pauses, chuckles. 'I seem to equate _everything_ with duelling, these days, don't I?'

Yugi's lips tweak a little. 'Watch it, _Yami Yugi_, I think you're developing an obsession complex.'

'Ha.'

Still joking. Well, it's something at least. But then the joke is followed by a long pause of silence except for the sound of Yugi drumming on the tabletop. Wasn't Austria supposed to be famous for good furniture or something? Why did all the motels they'd been in come equipped with plywood furniture and whitewash. Not hat he's ever complained about motel furniture. Provided it keeps blocking the door as well as it's currently doing, he supposes he can't get too snotty about it.

'It's only going to get worse out there and I. I don't know what to _do_ about it, Yami. We need our friends. We need _help_ – anyone's help but…'

'But?'

'I'm meant to be… to be _used_ to this.'

'I don't think you can ever get _used_ to the Shadow Realm, Yugi.'

He all but ignores Yami's statement. 'It still makes my eyes itch. And things still start spinning when I go out in it for too long. And it still makes me want to pass out, thrown up and tear my heart out all in one go and I… I don't _understand_. It never does this to the others.'

'…The others aren't _you_, Yugi.'

Yugi is too concerned right now to take offence at the truth, so he just sighs and focuses on Yami's hand on his shoulder.

'Mokuba was right, then. I _am_ comparable to Disney's snow white.'

'That's probably a bit _extreme_.'

'But not by much?'

'Well.'

The streets are back to screaming again, too far away for them to ever have helped whoever it was even if they could've gotten there. They're forced just to sit and listen and pray the television comes back on so they can find out what the hell the world is trying to do about all this. Probably not nearly as much as they should be, but then what help can they give, _anyway_? The few people in the world who have enough knowledge of the Shadow Realm to be of any usage are sitting in this room.

'I think we should've stayed in Egypt.'

'Yeah. The zombies would have been way more preferable to this, now that I think about it.'

* * *

**Reviews and concrit are appreciated. **


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: YuGiOh and all related characters are copyrighted to Kazuki Takahashi and not to myself. This fanfiction is a work of fun and not intended to infringe upon this legal copyright.

* * *

**

Chapter Three.

"_Telephone, n. An invention of the devil which abrogates some of the advantages of making a disagreeable person keep his distance." - _Ambrose Bierce

* * *

**Kaiba Corporation Main Officer Lounge. 5:50 am. **

'_You've reached Seto Kaiba's mobile line. I'm otherwise preoccupied at this moment in time. Leave a message after the beep.' _

'Otherwise preoccupied my _eye_, Seto. Where the heck are you? Seriously, fifteen year old who really doesn't wanna be up at this hour before school starts, here! Don't tell me you haven't been home all night?

'And _then_ I called up and found that you weren't in the officer here, either. I'm getting kinda worried. Not that I can't handle things perfectly well here, big brother, but you never actually told me _how_ to handle the morning schedule sheets, your secretary's nowhere to be found and I have business workers from Hong Kong breathing down my neck –_Hong Kong_, Seto! We don't even _have_ a Kaiba Land there! _And_ I took Technology instead of Modern Foreign languages at school this year so I can't tell what the heck they're saying!

'Plus one of the jets is missing and I'm gonna go out on a limb here and assume you're on it. Which means that this is about the Austria thing, right? You're actually giving them a ride, aren't you?

'…Yeah, you are. You must be. Wow. I guess I should've worked that one out sooner. Does this mean you can stop owing Yugi now? Because it's getting a little old.

'Um, look anyway, if you're out there then you're out there and I'll find some way to deal with things back here. You can count on me. I don't know why you went without _saying_ anything though because that's not _like_ you. You always tell me where you're going…

'Hey, Seto, were you _embarrassed_ because the reason you were going in the first place was…

'Uh. Never mind. So just make sure you say hi for me. And don't hurt any of Yugi's friends before you get there. And be careful around the end of the world things, okay? I don't want you getting into trouble again.

'Well. See you later big brother. Call back, okay? Bye.'

**Click. Hang up. **

Silence. The sound of shuffling trainers on an office floor.

'…Oh, to hell with it already.'

**Dial. Ring. **

'Hello? Marcus? It's Mokuba. Can you get the jet ready?'

'…'

'No, I know that one's gone, get the other one. Or maybe the copter, whichever is the fastest.'

'…?'

'Austria.'

'…'

'Yeah, you heard me right. Austria. Mmhm, the one currently in national crisis, what, is there _another_ Austria on the map that I don't know about? Yes, I'm sure, get on with it already.'

'…'

'Don't patronize me, Marcus, when I say I wanna go to Austria it _means_ I wanna go to Austria, this isn't a tantrum it's a business request.'

'…'

Look of _course_ I'm just a kid. That alone should mean that following him around is probably in my job description. Or… something. Just do it, already, okay? I have no more idea what's going on here than you do, so do you want me to get there and find out or not?'

'…'

'Great. Um, and while you're at it do we have any sick notes on file? There's supposed to be a test today and I figure I'm gonna be skipping it.'

'…?'

'Oh, I dunno, just tell them I've got flu, or something. Bye.'

**Click. Hang up.

* * *

**

**New York City, Carmen Street Apartment Block 3, 13:00 p.m. **

**Click.**

'Jounouchi? Jounouchi is that you? Damn it why'd it take you so long to call it's been _hours_ since—'

'_Yeah. Glad you finally picked up the phone, Gardner. What took you so long? Afraid it was a reverse call charge, or something?' _

'Oh… Oh, damn it. I'm sorry, I thought you were—Wait, what?'

'_Hm. Guess so. You know for someone who sounded so worked up about all this in the last message I happened to read of yours, you sure as hell aren't hanging around the phone.' _

'Wait, who the hell is…?'

'_It's me, Téa.' _

'…Seto Kaiba?'

'_I don't have to repeat myself, you heard me the first time. Where are you?'_

'You _are_ Seto Kaiba. Okay. Okay, that's… surprising. Why exactly are _you_ calling _me_? What're you--'

'_Well let me see, I think I might be currently breaking both my own personal dogma, missing Mokuba's fifteenth compulsory school test not to mention several business meetings, breaking more international relations laws than you can wave a check book at and wasting perfectly good money on calling you from outside of a general service area. In short, Gardner, I'm on one massive money wasting scheme right now and predictably, it's all Yugi's fault, so let's not make this any more difficult than is already is, okay?'_

'Kaiba, I have no idea what you're talking ab— is _Yugi_ with you?'

'_Hardly. The last I checked he was calling me up to arrange a flight for his little cheerleading group halfway across the planet in apparently record time. Unfortunately they appear to be missing their lead. So I ask again – where the hell _are_ you?' _

'Well I _was_ downstairs watching the news on the neighbour's cable. They're the only people who have any clue at the moment what the heck is going on over there.'

'_I was being a little more direct than that. Are you within running distance of the New York Central Airport?' _

'Uh, no, but I can call a cab. If I get the right one then it should be able to get me there in thirty minutes or less.'

'_Good. We'll be there in twenty. Forget about Customs. Just say you're with Kaiba Corp. Tell the to contact the Japanese Main Kaiba Corp Security phone line 81 9778 6955574 and direct them to Security Clearance level Three-Six-Nine-Two-Five-A.'_

'Oh my god, you have _secret security clearances_ with the New York Nationa—?'

'_Just _do it_, Gardner. We don't have time to discuss this if we're going to get to Austria before neither of them is left alive to rescue and this whole trip becomes more of a waste of money than it already is.' _

'What're you going on about, what do you mean _you'll be here_? You're in Japan!'

'_Clearly you underestimate your little buddy crew's persistence. If it weren't for them I most certainly _would_ be in Japan right now. As it happens, I'm actually entering the last flight run towards New York Central City Airport. And this plane doesn't like messing about on long runways, so you'd better get here fast enough that I can bribe the Airport to keep our arrival as quiet as a jet with this kind of propulsion power will allow.' _

'What?'

'_You're asking that an awful lot today, Gardner. Well, you need a ride there, don't you? Or are you planning to swim the Atlantic?' _

'…Kaiba.'

'_Don't start. Just get there.' _

'I. Okay, but wait! You're going to have to repeat that for me, I didn't get half of it.'

'_81 9778 6955574 . Security Clearance level Three-Six-Nine-Two-Five-A. That should give you the necessary recommendation from Mokuba. Tell them to access my contact phone number if they have to; just do whatever you can to get through that boundary as quickly as possible. And don't wear any _metal_ for God's sakes or it'll take another fifteen minutes just to get you out there.'_

'…_Nine-Two-Five-A. _Got it. Okay. I. I'll be waiting at the Airport.'

'_I thought you said the cab would take thirty minutes.' _

'Like hell it will.'

'_Either way, you'd better be here. My insurance is not going to cover the excess fuel usage here.' _

Click. Hang up.

'Oh, my god,' a glance upwards into the sky. 'Yugi, I think my miracle just came… and in the form of Seto Kaiba.

'Damn it, I _really_ need to get out more.'

* * *

**New York, 8000 Ft Above Sea Level. 13:08 am. **

'Mister Kaiba, sir, we're preparing for emergency landing in new York National Airport and have clearance for runway seventeen as of two minutes ago.'

'Fine, how close is that to the main terminal?'

'It's one of the short bus routes, sir, but it only takes roughly two minutes or five by foot. How long do you wish us to remain here.'

'Just stay put until I give the say so. How long until we land?'

'Approximately twenty minutes and counting, sir. All passengers are advised to put on their seatbelts.'

'I know the drill. Inform me when you've—'

'Hey, cool, man, check this _out_!'

'…What the hell?'

'Wow, it's all rather complicated isn't it? Always thought I was underestimating how hard it was to fly one of these things, I probably wouldn't know where to start… Oh, hello Kaiba, we were wondering where you'd vanished to.'

'Bakura? Mutt! What the—what are you idiots _doing_ up he—'

'Man we just wanted to see the cockpit before we pick Tea up. Hey check out all the buttons, man.'

'Oh for gods— what do you think this is a freaking day trip?'

'No, actually it's a detour on the plan to save our best bud from some unspeakable horror of some weird sort way over in that placer they call Austria. Man, we've been sitting cooped up in those weird excuses for chairs for hours. I think we've gotta right to see the stuff you're using to get us here, right? Besides, we had to tell you those weird lights have come back on an' everyone's gotta put their seatbelts back on now.'

'Yes. You know that would actually include _you_, you idiot.'

'I know that! Just checkin' that _you_ knew already. Jeeze that's a Kaiba's gratitude for ya…'

(Sigh). 'Are you _quite_ certain you're the one who's sober here, Wheeler? Because you've caused more chaos that Taylor has this whole _flight_. Ryou, will _please_ you put this boy back in his seat and get him to stay there?'

'Oh, uh, right. of course. By the way Kaiba is there any sign of Téa?'

'While we're still at least eight thousand feet above sea level? I highly doubt it. When I catch first sight of your little cheerleader, though, I'll let you know. For now just look out of the window and keep your eyes out for a pair of flying pompoms.'

'You know, man, I'm gonna tell her you said that when she gets here and she'll probably wanna kick your ass for it, free flight or no free flight. And need I mention you can totally _tell_ the flight was free, 'cause it's been bumping and shaking all over the place for the last ten minutes, it's like the thing's going to fall outta the sky any second or something. You never said this was gonna be standard class.'

'That's called _turbulence_, you fool, it happens on _all_ class— I mean, _all_ aeroplanes!'

'Uh, excuse me, sir, but I think it really would be a good idea for everyone to get back in their seats now, we passed the minimum free movement level at least three minutes ago.'

'Your warning is noted, already, pilot, will you just concentrate on landing this damn plane. I'm not paying you to amuse the cargo.'

'_Cargo_? Oh, alright _that_ does it—!'

'Uh, Jounouchi, please, he does have every right to leave us here, you know, and I don't think we actually brought our passports…'

'And we are fully cleared now for landing at New York Airport Runway seventeen short term stay area. Warning lights are on.'

'Joey for goodness sakes, get back in your seat!'

'Alright, alright, I'm goin' already. Damn, you suits and your rules…'

'Ah, come on, now, Joey, we should really do what the pilot tells us.'

'Hmpf.'

'Yo, Kaiba?'

'What is it _now_, Mutt?'

'What colour pompoms should we be looking for?'

'Oh for… get the hell out of my cockpit!'

'Heh heh.'

'Oh, _Joey_.'

* * *

**Austria, Vienna, 10:05 p.m. **

'So. Not that I wish to be personal, Yugi, but you look very much like death cooled down, right now.'

A sigh. 'Warmed up, Yami. Its death warmed up.'

'Yes, that too.'

'I'm not the only one. There are a whole lot of people out there with the same lack of resistance. Relax; I've got more of a balance than a lot of people like…'

'Like you?'

'Well, yeah. Like me. I'll be okay once I get used to the magical assault being raged on my spine.'

'Oh-kay. I'll trust you on that one for now, but you'd better mention it if you start losing your eye-hand-coordination or seeing in double vision.'

'We shouldn't have called them.'

'What?'

'Our friends. We shouldn't have. We should've left them in Japan where they were safe. Now they're going to get dragged into this and it's going to be my fault if they all get Shadow Poisoning.'

'…There is no such thing as Shadow Poisoning, Yugi.'

'Well if you can think of a better name for the immense pressure building up in my skull, Atem, feel free to mention—ach!' A flash of light, sudden and sharp from overhead, and then a plunge into darkness. 'Ow! Damn it!'

'Yugi? Yugi!'

'Ngh, I'm fine, it's just a power cut.'

'You said "ow".'

'Yeah, we humans tend to do that when red hot glass light filaments make contact with our faces unexpectedly. Sorry, Yami I…'

'My name again. You said my name _out loud_, there, didn't you?'

'Uh yeah. I think I just deprived us of out remaining electricity.'

'You can see why they never told me it, back in ancient Egypt.'

'You know it's officially been twenty four hours now without a sunrise or a sunset.'

'Yes, I think it was supposed to have risen a couple of hours ago. Personally I think Europe will be able to consider itself lucky if they ever get to see another sunrise.'

'Damn. Still, we're gonna have to remind them about that when they get here, Yami… _don't say your real name_, especially not in the presence of electrical items, at least until we get the sun back. If they even get here. Damn it, Yami what have we gotten ourselves into? And worse still, what are we not getting _them_ into? I hope Téa doesn't try to get here because I don't have any idea how she'd manage it from all the way over in New—'

'_Yugi_, you really shouldn't think like that. They understand the risks they are taking.'

'I can't _help_ thinking like that, Yami, it's how things _are_. What about… about Bakura?'

'What about him?'

'Well, he's _been_ a host; he's got the same Millennium issues as I do. I'm not going to start taking the comparison to Disney's Snow White too seriously here because it drives me mad enough when the rest of you do it, but magical wise it's pretty much accurate. We're both magical light comparisons to balance out the two of you. Shadow Realm power doesn't _like_ us. If Ryou comes he'll be in the same state as…'

'Yugi, we are talking about Bakura Ryou here. He's been dabbling on occult superstition for years. The boy knows how to operate voodoo dolls for goodness sakes.'

'Well I can see how— wait, he can operate what?'

'Voodoo dolls. You know. Those dolls you can use to help or harm somebody by—'

'I know what they are, Yami, I just had no idea Bakura ever dabbled in the things.'

'Hm, more like he avoids them with a passion.'

'Spirit?'

'Ah, there was... an _incident_, a while back. You were out of town and Yami-Bakura was playing up again and uh. Look, I hardy see how this is important, the point is that Ryou Bakura, if he's anything like you, Yugi, is capable of handling this. You're shaking like Gods only knows what and I'm not exactly enjoying all the excess Shadow magic flying around here myself. We can't do this alone.'

'I…'

'Mm?'

'...Guess you're right. No need to rub it in, though.'

Not an uncomfortable silence follows, considering. Nobody dead yet and that was always a plus sign, a reason to count your blessings and enjoy the silence, even if that silence happened to be dark, creepy and mostly disturbing.

'Yugi.'

'Mm?'

'The door, Yugi. behind you. I heard knocking.'

'…'

'…'

'Yeah. You're right that's— Okay that's not actually _knocking_. That's more like how things knock when they don't actually _have_ hands to knock with and… Uh oh.'

'Guess it's too much to hope that this is the cavalry.'

'I think it would be, Yami. I think the guys from the bar have found us.'

'Or rather whatever remains of the guys from the bar inside of those spiritually possessed animate corpses.'

'_Please_ don't talk about it like that, they— Yami? Wait, what do you think you're doing?'

'Looking for a heavy and-slash-or blunt object. Get behind me. If we have to—'

'Uh. No. No way. If you're going to face those _things_ out there then you're either doing it with me or you're not doing it at all!'

'I don't think that's what I would call a safe option, Yugi. Not with you in this state.'

'And attacking them on your own is?! Yami get real, those things used to be _people_. They still _are_ people we can't just—!'

'Well as you might say, Yugi, if you have any better ideas I'd certainly like to hear them. Like try right here and right _now_.'

'…Actually, I think I might.'

'What?'

A hand grips the very-much-tangible-these-days Spirit's upper arm and pulls him backwards. 'There's a back exit, provided we're both up to shimmying down drainpipes. Yami, we've got to run for it. Now!'

* * *

**With any luck we'll be able to get some contact in from Egypt next chapter. I say "with any luck" for a good reason, too. Reviews are appreciated. **


	4. Chapter 4

**Know what? I should probably take this opportunity to point out that this was not originally meant to be a multi-chaptered fic. Nonetheless multi-chapters are what has happened to it, and I'm not entirely certain the mostly-dialogue style of the fic, which worked very well for a simple one-shot, is being especially appropriate here. I guess I'm now taking inspiration from Jean Cocteau's "The Human Voice", amongst others. So if anyone wants to point out how I'm doing with continuing to use this style in a longer fiction, feel free to do so. **

**Btw Mokuba's age has been changed in the last chapter, 'cause I made a boob. This story is set roughly six years after the end of the series, in an alternate Ending scenario (since the dark spirits are still around.) There is some swearing in this chapter. It's barely possible for me to keep Yami-Bakura in character without it. Standard disclaimers still apply, go have fun**.

* * *

Chapter Four. 

**Austria****, Vienna, 10:06 pm. **

'It can't be as bad as it really looks, right? Maybe if we take it step by step.'

'Be careful. It's high.'

'Y-yeah. Okay, whoa. I'm changing my mind. It's definitely as bad as it looks. Got to be safer than what's trying to come through there though, hasn't it? Ow!'

'Sorry, was that my foot on your nose?'

'Actually it was more like your foot on my eye, Atem—oop!'

A spatter of light from a nearby fuse box that had previously been dead as the grave. Light sparking up the concrete walls of the alleyway.

'Oh, damn it. I'm sorry, I hate it when that slips out.'

'Ngh. It's fine. Just a little static, keep moving.'

'Believe me, Yami, I'm _trying_. I think the fire escape must be…'

'Broken. Yes, I've just noticed. How far are we from the ground?'

'I… I'm not sure. It's too dark to tell.' He sits back against the fire escape wall, takes a deep breath. 'God, this is a mess. Yami, I hate to say I told you so, but…'

'Alright, fine. The next time they hold a tournament we'll take a direct flight instead of stopping over in Europe for a transfer. I still expect the undoubtedly fourth coming disaster would follow us wherever we went anyway.'

'You seal the darkness, you control the darkness. Yeah, Yami, I know.'

'Hm. Or _don't_ control it, as the case may be… Now, the airport, right? We have to get there and we have to get there now. If anyone is coming to help then they'll be arriving at that point. It would _help_ to have a vehicle.'

'No it wouldn't, neither of us can drive.'

'I hardly think we're going to get stopped for a ticket, partner.'

A vaguely agreeing sigh. 'Still can't believe got them into this.'

'Let's focus on getting _us_ out of it for now, Yugi.'

The sound of metal clattering beneath them, and now above them, too as whatever has followed them into the room bins scraping about somewhere overhead. 'I know I promised I'd never say this, Yami but… Can't you just… mind crush a couple of them?'

'…Pardon?'

The scrape of metal against an elbow, the hissed effort to ignore it. He'd let it hurt later. Now wasn't a good time for pain.

'I know, Yami. I know _you_ know that I _hate_ the very concept of the mind crush and made you promise to never do it, but… what about just a temporary shock, of some kind? Nothing permanent, just give us time to get away?'

'No. Mind crushes are centred on peoples emotions and weaknesses, Yugi. These creatures are possessed; there are no emotions I could target. Besides I _couldn't_ do it without causing permanent damage, all I might do is make things worse. The only way that would work would be to use it on whoever is responsible for this mess.'

'Yeah, really starting to wish we knew that.'

'We'll discuss it later. Right now move a little faster.'

'Kind of hard when there's nowhere to go!' He can see Yami lick his lips nervously, even in the chaos of the darkness. '…We could try jumping. For all I know that's a fifteen metres drop below us, but…'

Yami hesitates. Yugi knows he's wracking his brain, wracking his mind, listening to the growing curdling screams from the rooms above. 'I can sense the magical influx on the streets below… we were on the sixth floor of the motel… it can't possibly be _that_ far, it depends how far we've climbed.'

An interruption comes from glass smashing overhead and the appearance of a shining, translucent white hand that is, but isn't quite human, bleeding black blood. And soon the bodies follow. A crowd of cold figures rearing through the glass.

Another hand – this one warm and strong– grasps hold of his. No time for hesitating. No time for wondering. 'Yugi, jump!'

So Yugi does.

It's not a huge drop. Just enough to knock the wind from your gut without being hard enough to shatter any bones unless someone landed on their books. Metal clatters from trash cans that one of them has fallen into.

'Urgh… Y-Yami!'

'I'm fine. Can you—

'Yes, move!'

And up above them the bodies are joining the hands on the fire escape as the creatures climb down after them like catlike, ghostly gymnasts. It's disturbing. But not disturbing in the same way as nightmares or the sight of The Thousand Eyes Restrict appearing in play during a Duel Monsters match might be. Not disturbing in the same way it might be to see the ghosts of your ancestors staring out at your from parched white faces. Worse than all of those things. Real living people reduced to shells of flesh, pigment and muscles dissolving as the shadows fed on the hosts whose bodies they carried.

Yami's hand is still clutching his as they stagger to their feet.

They run.

* * *

**Cairo International Airport****, Egypt**** 10:21 pm. **

_"Hey there, you've reached the Joey Wheeler Mobile Hotline. I'm kinda busy helpin' save the world, kicking duellist ass or maybe out getting burgers or something right now. Leave a message!" _

'…Jounouchi? It's Marik Ishtar. Just thought you'd like to know, wherever you currently are that we're... still in Egypt. We'd probably be somewhere else except we're having a bit of an issue with the whole Airport Security thing and the fact that Ishizu didn't think to renew our _passports_ the last time we left the country. Believe me, we're trying to get there.

'We're also still getting about as much response from Yuugi's cell phone as we usually get from all the catacombs. Which isn't much, in case you're wondering. I'd seriously be glad of the break from staring at stone walls and text books, Jounouchi, but why the hell do you have to be saving the world every…

'…Time. Oh. Uh. Big Sister?'

'Marik?'

'I think I just lost reception in the middle of a message to Jounouchi.'

'Yes, I thought that might happen.'

'So much for you not having a vision in years, sister.'

'It's merely a hunch, brother. The growing energy currently centering on an area of Europe is probably interfering with any signals we attempt to send. That would explain why we couldn't contact Yuugi after he called _us_ the first time. Maybe the signals can get _out_, but not _in_, I'm not certain. But whatever the case, this means that they must surely be growing close to the eye of the chaos itself.'

'Wait, you mean to say they're already there?'

'Most likely. If you lost contact so abruptly it is likely they are now within the sphere of influence. Doubtless _they_ don't have to deal with the Cairo Official Airport Documentation. Speaking of which, Marik, if you want to get on a plane any time in the near future and have any hope of reaching Yuugi before the imminent collapse of Europe into total oblivion, you will _sit still_ and allow me to fill out these forms in peace now.'

'Huh. Such a ridiculous thing as _passports_. No offence intended, sister, but aren't you supposed to be the Board of Directors for Egyptology or something? Why didn't you ever think _renew_ our passports after Battle City?'

'I wasn't expecting -nor hoping- to have to travel again at such short notice. It's also very _difficult_, little brother, to explain your identity to the correct authorities without being able to produce any evidence of birth records or documentation to _prove_ you exist in the first place and we currently have no way in which to explain the absence of those things.'

'…Ishizu, we _did_ live in the _tombs_ cut off from all of civilisation.'

'Exactly. But _that_ explanation isn't going to get us through customs within the next forty-five minutes. My current method will.'

'And what would that method be?'

'A little creative licence, nothing more.'

'…_Ishizu_.'

'Marik, _please_. I don't approve of this anymore than I would if you were doing it.'

'No, but _really_, sister, _forging important documents_ is _surely_ not becoming for an important member of the Egyptian Counsel for Archaeology.'

'It is _not_ forgery, Marik. As I noted, this is simply a means to an end. The fastest way out of here is written on this paper and if we don't do something to help the pharaoh soon then there is a strong risk we may lose them completely. I'm fairly sure that destiny may… _cut us some slack_ here.'

'And using _modern colloquialisms_ too. I never knew you had it in you sister. Okay, fine. So what have we got there and who am I supposed to be exactly?'

'You'll find out later. For now please, Marik, let me fill out the forms.'

'Alright, sister. Alright. Fine. I'll go bother Odion for a while and see what we can dig out of the book store. It's a long flight to Vienna Airport.'

'We aren't going to Vienna.'

'…What?'

'All flight paths have been closed off to that destination. They've been closed off ever since this chaos started. According to the guide the closest we can get is a one way route to the south of England.'

'Which is _how_ many miles away from them? Sister, we wouldn't be any better off there than we are here!'

'I wouldn't count on that, Marik. We'll be closed by a few thousand miles at least.'

'_A few thousand_… but _that's_ not going to make a difference, we're no good to them on some random island in the middle of the pacific!'

'We may be more use there than you think Marik.'

'Ishizu, _what_—'

'Brother, please. Just… Call _that_ a strong hunch also. And it really _is_ the best that I can do for us right now. and even that depends upon me being able to _do these papers_ convincingly…?'

'Hint taken, big sister. I think I'll continue with my offer for my brother and I to go entertain ourselves elsewhere…'

'You do that.'

* * *

**Domino**** University**** Residents Area: Twelve, Apartment Three. 5:19 am. **

Damn phone was ringing again. One of those persistent callers who refuses hang up until well after ring-the-eighteenth.

'Ngh… damn it, man… sleepin'.'

Ringing. Ringing.

'I said _shut up_.'

Ringing, ringing, ringing, ringing. Banging on the neighbour's wall. Etcetera.

'Oh for crying out…'

Ringing, ringing, ri—

**Click. **

'Um… Teiko Itchika— I mean… Ishikawa Teiko from flat twelve speaking, who the hell is it?'

'About time you picked up you little pestilence, what do you think I am a bloody operating service? Where is he?'

'…The hell, man?'

'You _know_ who it is speaking, you moron, now where is he?'

'Uh… you're gonna have to clarify a little for me here, mister. Where's _who_? Because if you're some guy looking for Kanabashi then he swears on his parents lives that the rent's gonna be through to you by—'

'Oh for the love of Ra and all that is holy you brat, will you do me a favour and shut up?'

'…Charming. You know, we can get people kicked outta the flats for messing with our study periods.'

'Oh, and you were of course studying with all your fucking might at fi_ve oh clock in the morning_. Just put Ryou on the line already and I will cease to bother your beauty sleep.'

'Guh… Ryou?'

'Yes. White haired kid. Quiet. Fondness for Cream Puffs. Find him. Bring him to the phone. _Now_.'

A couple of blinks worth of pause to re-establish coherency. 'You… wait, you're that white haired freak who hangs around **_our_** white haired freak, aren't you?'

'And the genius finally fucking works it out. Congratulations, you win the prize of not being sent to the Shadow Ream provided not a single word I don't want to hear comes out of your mouth for the rest of this –hopefully short– conversation.'

'Hey! Man, I'd have a few choice words to say to you if I weren't still half sleepin'.'

'Oh, really? Well I have a few choice words for you too, boy, and I honestly don't care how conscious you are. Is. Ryou. Bakura. In. That. Flat. Or. Fucking. Not? _Answer me already_!'

'Well sure I mean he's… kinda… well, no.'

The groan down the phone line sounds kind of like a bad actor's evil-cackling-warm up. 'No. Of _course_ he's not. So where do you think he _might_ be, then, dear boy, hm? Where can I find that annoying little Yadounoushi who so stupidly refuses to leave a message for the other half of his soul before charging off to god knows where? What does he think I am, some pharaoh's wretched cat?'

'…I have no idea what you're talking about.'

'You wouldn't. It's beyond you, anyway. Now _where_ could he have _gone to_?'

'Uhuh. And why, pray tell, should I even _tell you_ anything, mister "I'm-all-scary-and-screaming-down-the-phone-line-at-a-guy-he-doesn't-even-know-about-maybe-getting-his-good-buddy-Ryou-worked-up-again? 'Cause I had enough stress dealing with you the last time you showed up and I tell you, I _still_ ain't ever looking at the toaster in the same way again.'

'_Listen_ to me, mortal—'

'No! No, _you_ listen, you freaky… person, you. Enough is _enough_ already. I don't know who the hell you are but if you don't leave our flat buddy alone then next time we see you, we're gonna have to give you a taste of your own freaking medicine!'

The caller's laugh, Teiko decides, also sounds very much like a bad actor's evil-cackling-warm up, only worse. 'Oh, gods. You _ridiculous_ fools, I really _would_ like to see you try it.'

'Oh yeah?'

'_Yes_!'

A silent pause, kind of like a stand-off over the phone lines. He can totally hear the molars grinding and the clicking of the golden spurs.

'Alright, then,' the caller continues, suddenly sounding far too polite for Teiko to be comfortable about it. 'Let me be uncharacteristically generous and make this simple for you. Now, arrogant, bratty, lazy little mortals like yourself couldn't even mildly begin to comprehend just what this whole wretched world is about. Even when the very meaning to existence is sitting right there in front of you (which it pretty much is, I'll have you know), you still don't for the life of you see it. Thus, you, mortal, cannot possibly understand exactly what is happening right now and doubtless, you have not even so much as switched on that wretched television to find out what is going on _outside_.'

'Hey, I watch the news, okay?'

'Oh? Then no doubt you know all about the Vienna incident that's taking place right at this very moment. The evacuation of surrounding cities, to little or no avail? The dark hazard that is threatening to spread across half of Europe even as we sit here wasting time so I can explain it all to you idiots?'

'Of course we know! It's on pretty much every channel.'

'Good. Now, if you also have just the tiniest hint of intuition, you will _also_ know about the possible risk of mass carnage which is approaching and which all of those lovely news channels are being deliciously hush-hush about but which are still quite obviously coming, judging from the looks on their faces as they read the latest headlines? The stories about the terror that will come when people have to be pulled out of gutters apparently dead but still, for some reason, still trying to _attack_ those who dragged them there?'

'Urgh, man too much information.'

'Oh believe me, mortal, you've heard _nothing _yet. How about the part about the certain bodies of certain half-souled human brats found amongst all of those other bodies, one of which bore a startling resemblance to a mister Bakura Ryou? And you can bet your own life, boy, that that particular body wasn't so much as trembling, much less trying to grab at people.'

A hesitation followed. A silence as deep and cold as two day old pizza. 'That… that wasn't on the news.'

'Well it's fucking well _going to be_ if you don't tell me when the darned fool left that building and which direction he took to the airport!'

'So… so whatever this whole mess is it's-'

'Worse than me. Almost, anyway. The world can go to hell for all I care but I need that boy _alive_ -again, for reasons you could probably never comprehend'

'…Fuck.'

'Exactly. Finally you've grasped something of logic. Now tell me when Bakura left.'

Teiko can feel his face paling. 'Man I… he left hours ago, okay? If he was going out there he'd already be on a flight by now. Wait, what the… why would Bakura be going to—'

**Click. Beep. **

'… Austria, anyway?' The student heavily replaces the receiver and lets the silence hang for a second before another roommate starts thumping on the walls.

'…God damn it, that crazy _bastard.'

* * *

_

**Somewhere over Asia, 8:30 pm. **

_'You've reached Seto Kaiba's mobile line. I'm otherwise preoccupied at this moment in time. Leave a message after the beep.' _

'Seto? It's me. You know this is the fourth time I've called, already. I'm pretty sure this isn't what you wanted the company budget money spent on. And yeah –I know you're not supposed to use mobile phones on aircraft but I've seen you doing it often enough and we've never exactly crash landed so long as you were piloting. So anyway, I'm…

'Actually I'm not entirely sure where I am. All I know is we're talking a land-flight route since I asked for the fastest way there. That's the fastest way, we just have to hope the army doesn't catch us. The pilot's not exactly being informative no matter how much I try to explain to him how coherently I understand navigator talk and the standardised flight plan for personal aircraft.

'Try and hire some employees who don't try to _patronize_ me next time, okay, Seto?

'I'll see you in the airport. Vienna I… I hope you're there. I'm pretty sure you'll be there, but if you're not, this would be a really good time to call up and tell me. I know something weird is going on there and… and I know how bad it is. I _don't_ know why _you'd_ wanna get yourself involved in it, big brother, but if it's something to do with them, then…

'Ah, damn it already, I'll just see you there. Try not to get in any trouble. Okay, big brother? Okay?

'…Okay.

(Sigh) 'Seeya.'

**Beep. Click.

* * *

**

**Approaching Vienna International Airport, 9000 Ft Above Sea Level. 10:14 pm. **

'Tristan! Yo, Taylor, wake up already!'

'Ngggh… nuh. Head hurts. Need sleep.'

'Hey, s'your own fault man, don't expect any sympathy from me.'

'Urgh, but you weren't even— wait, Joey?'

'Yeah. Me. Go figure.'

'But… You don't work in my department. Ow. Actually you don't work in my station _at all_.'

'You kidding me? I wouldn't work in _that_ place if they paid me twice the maximum wage. Your boss is like the rebirth of Dartz and that Man Eater Bug card rolled into one.'

'Oh-kay. So. I'm assuming we're no longer in Domino Police Station, so where the heck _are_ we?'

'Well, last I checked we were just in the middle of crossing that big ocean between American and Europe.'

'I think you mean the Atlantic, Jo— whoa, what the hell?'

'Yeah, that's the ocean he meant. Kaiba says we had to take a scenic route to Austria in order to find a viable flight path… That and there was me to pick up.'

'Wait! Hang on a sec, I— _Austria_? I don't need to go to Austria! My passport hasn't been renewed since the last time we went to Egypt, this is illegal! What the hell are we— Wait, _Téa_? What're _you_ doing here? Last I checked you were on the other side of globe.'

'Yeah, as we all are right now. Hi, Tristan. New York is great, thanks for asking. How's the hangover?'

'…Urgh, I think I need to go back to sleep so I can wake up and find out I'm dreaming.'

'Sorry, Tristan, but I'm afraid that's really not an option. Just don't count this as international kidnap, okay? It's all for Yugi's sakes, and we didn't have the time to wait until you were sober again.'

'But you actually had to have me along with ya? I have a job to do! I'm supposed to be on duty at six this morning and… damn it, what freaking _time zone_ are we in here, anyway?'

'Oh, I wouldn't worry about that until we land, Tristan. Airlines operate to an international guideline so it doesn't really matter when you're moving between continents.'

'Yeah and anyway, you would've moaned about it later if we hadn't brought ya along. Man, you're never happy. C'mon, we're getting to see Europe, here!'

'During an Armageddon!'

'That's unusual?'

'…You are so paying for this when we get back to Japan. Joseph Wheeler.'

'Sure I am. For now, though –you wanna coffee? We've got some of that cheap stuff in the cans in the back.'

'Yeah… Yeah coffee would be good, thanks.'

* * *

**There we have it. Reviews would be appreciated, excuse me now while I go join Tristan for his coffee. **


	5. Chapter 5

**How the upcoming scenes are ever going to come across as plausible is beyond me, but hell it was fun to do. Standard disclaimers apply. **

* * *

Chapter Five.

**Vienna**** International Airport**** Runway Twelve. 11:13 pm. **

Kaiba knows that his company's pilots are as good as they come, but that doesn't prevent him from feeling a faint touch of relief when the flight touches down without colliding with any other vehicles on a still, silent and (most worryingly) dark as the grave runway.

'All systems are coming up normal, flight has touched down with little to no interference, Mister Kaiba.' The pilot is looking through the window with some confusion even as he says this. He's thinking the same thing as Kaiba is- wondering where the hell the lights and people are and what the hell they might have just touched down into. It's like some kind of movie about dead darkness and creatures in the shadows. If he listens closely enough Kaiba can almost imagine movement in the shadows from creatures that are anything but human.

But of course that is just the kind of totally and utterly ridiculous crap that the mutt would usually come out with, and Kaiba had never had any respect for such blatantly obvious Hollywood movies anyway.

That doesn't change the fact that there are weird things out here. or at least there are if the news reports and Yugi Muto are to be believed. He finds it slightly ironic that he considers Yugi more reliable than the news reports.

Or maybe it's not that ironic at all.

The co pilot is glancing at his team mate and muttering, both of them seem to have decided that this whole thing was a bad idea. His nervousness earns him an annoyed glance from his employer.

'Whenever you're _ready_, co-pilot,' Kaiba realises he hasn't actually bothered to ask for their names.

'Right, sir… Of course. Commencing Landing Final System Checks.'

He doesn't sound sure a bout it, but Kaiba lets that go because honestly, there's a lot more he has to be concerned about.

And then the movie starts.

Something large, white, thin and very much alive (or maybe not) is gripping the glass window of the aeroplane cockpit in fingers as smooth and pale as glaciers. Kaiba doesn't so much as gasp in astonishment as he sees the industrial strength, high velocity resistant window splintering beneath its grip.

The pilots aren't exactly as reserved as their employer.

And neither, it seems, is Wheeler, still in the back of the aircraft thought doubtlessly no longer sitting in his chair.

'_Holy shit—' _

'—What the _hell_ is that?!'

* * *

**Highway En-Route to Vienna International Airport. 11:05 pm. **

Yugi has to admit, he's never been in a vehicle which was moving quite this fast as this before in his life. Except possibly a jumbo jet or while on the back of Tristan's motorcycle.

And even Tristan has to be a more careful driver than Yami. He's also fairly sure that Yami's never had a lesson in his life. That would explain all the swerving.

'Where are we now?'

'I'd be able to tell you if we had a map, Yami. _Ach_! L-look, Yami, I don't care what you say about circumstances—'

A hard collision with a rolled over trashcan which has somehow found its way onto the freeway near shocks him into silence but somehow he swallows and keeps talking. Yugi really can carry out a conversation in the strangest of situations. It must be a talent he learned from Joey.

'…I'm still pretty sure that this—'

Crunch.

'Counts—'

Hands overhead to keep his skull from cracking against the roof (which given how utterly short Yugi still is, is really saying something about just how insanely Yami is driving. 'As _stealing_!'

'No problem we'll give it back. I hardly think his is a good time to be discussion the matter and its owner is probably one of the things trying to catch up with us. Which one is the clutch?'

'Uh, well in Japanese cars it's on the left but… ah, there it is, _there_ it is!'

'Right.'

Another hard lurch throws him back in the seat. On the other hand, at least Yami seems to be getting the hang of it.

He's the King of all Games and yet the guy can't even handle a moving vehicle.

'Yami, giving this vehicle _back_ depends entirely on us keeping it in one piece in the first place! Can't you slow down just a little? Anyway, how exactly do you suppose they're going to catch up? Those things don't look like they can drive vehicles,'

'No, but you'd be surprised at the level of speed is capable in a body possessed of supernatural forces.'

The white flash shoots past the window with a speed that makes Yami's driving look like a steady crawl in rush-hour. Yugi tastes burning as something hot (or maybe boiling cold) skims past the outside of the land rover.

A quiet hiss of anger from the seat beside him, feral, strange and very much _not_-human. He's only aware of it because the mental link allows him to feel it; otherwise it'd be impossible to hear him over the roar of the engine. 'See what I mean?'

'Yeah. Yeah, I think I get the picture. We can't be that far away, but I can't exactly read the signs. I recognize that tree patch from the last time we were here, so we're going the right way. Possibly on the wrong side of the road, but…'

The white flash is back. In front of them this time, sweeping out of nowhere and colliding thickly with the glass windshield at one hundred miles per hour. The glass cracks and splinters and shards break through as claws which probably used to be fingers smash against it.

He can see the face , totally reshaped after the collision with the glass, broken bones and a smashed up jaw and yet the thing is still screaming. The eyes are staring at him. Wide, bright, disturbingly human…

…Frightened.

No. not frightened. _Terrified_. Even more so than Yugi is right at this very moment.

'Yami!'

'On it. Wheel!'

Yugi grabs the wheel on impulse and doesn't even think to argue (or comment on how this really isn't a Hollywood action scene and probably shouldn't be conducted like one) when Yami opens the skylight and starts to climb out onto the room.

* * *

**Vienna**** International Airport**** Runway Twelve. 11:13 pm. **

Nobody has asked Kaiba exactly what it was that just tried to burst into the aircraft through the shatterproof windows but nobody really seems to care that much about the details. All that matters for now is that it's gone again, and Téa can finally stop herself shaking and Bakura can pull himself out of the gap between the chairs where he fell as soon as the creature started pounding on the metal.

…Or _two_ creatures, they aren't entirely sure, but since they dimmed the lights in the aircraft, everything has gone still and silent again.

'Okay,' Mai balances herself against the door of the cockpit, 'well, this is nice, isn't it? Know what, I'm not doing this anymore, Wheeler, you can damn well save the world on your own next time.'

'C'mon, Mai, we all know you don't mean it. Still, what in the name of hell _were_ those freaks?'

'What do you mean those freaks? Joey, don't tell me you heard more than one of them!'

'Well sorry, ' Kura, but I wasn't exactly stoppin' to count!'

'Human.' Kaiba puts in bluntly.

That earns him a few odd glances, but what should he care about their confusion? He understood from what Yugi told him that the people in Vienna wouldn't exactly be normal and he knew what he would see from the second they had touched down. He figure Yugi would've had the sense to warn his cheerleading squad just what they were coming into. Apparently not.

He leaves his pilots to deal with the mess in the cockpit and steps fully into the main area of the aircraft, observing the frightened passengers with a hint of amusement. 'Yugi mentioned it. Those creatures are humans. Or at least, they used to be. Look in the eyes and you can even see it. It's a sick situation but I've seen no reason not to believe it's true.'

'Oh,' Mai's voice is dry as a bone. 'Wonderful. _Just_ what we need to know, Kaiba. Not only are we up against freaks but those freaks also happen to be the citizens of Austria. Wish to hell that Yugi had told us all _that_ before we got in the aircraft.'

Tristan glances out the window. 'Sure is still out there, isn't it? I mean, now that we got rid of it… Quiet.'

'Yeah. _Too_ qui—'

'Ac-hem.'

'Sorry, that just kinda came out. But, yeah, it's quiet. Creepy, even.

'And _dark_. I'm not seeing any runway lights, no lit up road signs… no _anything_.'

'Where is everyone?' Téa swallows and somehow, she finds herself looking in Kaiba's direction for an explanation. He is, after all, the only one of them who is for some strange reason not yet having a fit. 'It can't be that _everyone_ in the whole City looks like… like that _thing_ that just tried to attack us, right?'

'Actually that's highly likely,' Kaiba says. 'That thing was human, however little it looked like it. It's probably happened to every damn human life form in this whole city, if not the country.'

'Then what about us? I'm not feelin' any extra teeth sprouting here, man. You don't think we'll end up like that, do ya?'

'No you wouldn't. It must be a primary infection situation.'

'A what?'

'Never listen in biology, Wheeler? It means that you had to be present in the city when the event began in order to be affected, perhaps, or maybe it's some kind of genetic manifestation. Either way I think all of us will be safe for now.

'Except, obviously, if you name is Yuugi.'

'Exactly.'

'Well, he called us, didn't he? He sure sounded human to me.'

'He sounded human when he contacted you over _eight hours ago_, Wheeler. There's no saying it's the same now.'

'…Crap.'

'Exactly. So you'd better hope that the guy you're here to rescue isn't just going to start doing what the _rest_ of these freaks are doing right now. Namely try devour your souls.'

'Man,' Wheeler leans against a chair, his face turning just a little paler than it usually is. 'Then it must be like something outta _Dawn of the Dead_ out there… s'cept with living people (I think) and freaky black skies, instead of dead people an' shopping malls.'

'_Dawn of the Dead_ had a _shopping mall_?'

'Sure it did. Man, you really need to brush up on your international cinema.'

'You're the one who can't get past the opening credits of _It's a Wonderful Life_.'

'Whatever. Look, guys are you're certain those things out there are _alive_, then? Because they sure don't _look_ _it_ to me.'

Kaiba opens a briefcase in front of him with a click. 'They're alive. Most of them, anyway. Some of them are probably just being driven by the will of their possession right now whether they're living or not. They're like puppets, dominated by their own over-endowed senses, capable of annihilating people with a single touch, but they're definitely alive. And they'll stay that way, at least until the Shadow Realm has drained them of all their uses or one of us kills them.'

'Yeah. You really know how to bring some humour into an apocalypse, don't ya?'

'I think I _know_ about being possessed, Mutt.'

'Heh, what do you know, he admits it.'

'Uh-_huh_, and anyway, Kaiba are you saying that I _don't_ know about being brain-controlled? Cause you'd better believe I do.'

Mai looks up. 'Yeah and let's not forget me, Kaiba. The Oricalcos thing, that messed with my brain, my focus _and_ my hairdo all in one shot?'

Téa raises her hand. 'Yeah, and me, while you're at it.'

There's a silent pause while Tristan glances to Mai, Mai turns to Joey and Joey looks at Téa.

'I think that says it all, then,' Bakura doesn't even bother to mention himself.

'Hm. Yeah, pretty much _all of us_ have of us have had that experience at some point or another, so nobody is exactly a special case. It was different every time, it just depends what kind of possession we were undergoing and I don't think they have a classificatory system for that kind of thing… that said, they probably _should_ do.'

'Don't remind me, Téa, please. My thief is bad enough now that we're no longer sharing a body and he's _not_ attempting to take over the world every opportunity he gets, but _before_ that…' Bakura's shiver can be felt throughout the entire aircraft. Even Seto Kaiba twitches just a little at the reminder of the thing that Bakura could become.

'Urgh. Is it just me, or does hanging around with Yugi and Yami and all of their… their let's-go-save-the-world-ness really, _really_ mess with your head?'

'No, hun, I think alcohol is what's messing with _your_ head right now. Serves you right, really. I'm surprised you were as sober as you were, what with all the sake we managed to confiscate off of your person before we got on this flight. A conventional airport probably wouldn't have let you through the door.'

'Oh, well _excuse me_, I kinda wasn't expecting to get abducted and dragged halfway round the world in the middle of the night, so I didn't exactly prepare myself for a possible catastrophe and… and Kaiba, what _is_ that, exactly?'

The briefcase closes with another click. 'What does it look like, Taylor?

'Well it… kinda looks like a rather dangerous piece of mechanical weaponry.'

'Also known as a 48 Calibre pistol. Be careful it's heavy.'

'What, so first you brought is all the way out here and _now_ you're giving us weaponry?'

'Kaiba, you can't be suggesting that we use that…'

'Well let's see, this entire city is full of creatures that _won't_ pause to give a pointless speech of their terrible abilities _before_ ripping your limbs off (or whatever else in hell they're planning to do to us) the way so many of your usual opponents do, but, last I checked, they were _still_ flesh and blood. They'll still respond appropriately to firearms. Probably.'

'You think we should _shoot_ them?'

'_No_, Taylor, I'm giving you the guns as a form of decoration. You're supposed to open the gun barrel in order to fill the—'

'Zip it already, Kaiba, I _know_ how to operate a gun.'

'Wow, the police force really _did_ teach you something useful. I'm almost impressed. Do me a favour then and give your little friends here a run through of the basics.'

'But you just said that those things out there are… _alive_, didn't you? As in they're _people_.'

'I'm not suggesting you go on a gun totting rampage and shoot at everything in sight. I'm not even all that certain that conventional weapons like this _will_ be much good anyway. Just try and keep the damn things away from us so we don't have to find out for certain.'

'Man, you really are the token of generosity today, Kaiba.'

'For your information I have shares out here, mutt,' he pauses to click an air rifle that has suddenly appeared from… somewhere. Nobody is quite sure exactly where. 'The end of Europe would also be the end of a large percentage of our Kaiba Corporation Customs. Now, as much as I hate passing the situation to you goons, it's your call from here.'

'…How come?'

'Well he's _your_ friend, isn't he? We're about twelve miles from the central city and we have a choice. We either all stay here and wait for Yuugi to come to _us_, or we go and try to find him in a city several hundred kilometres wide and filled with spiritually possessed zombies. I think I know which one I'm opting for, Wheeler.'

'…And what if Yugi _doesn't_ get to us?' Tristan asks, hangover forgotten as he fingers a hand rifle. 'What if what you thought might've happened to him has already…'

'Then we'll find out, fix the rest of this mess and get the living hell out of here,' Kaiba speaks as evenly as any man who has been handling fire arms, sharp objects, martial arts and duel cards all his life. 'Without him, if necessary.'

Nobody says anything in response to that, because nobody wants to draw any closer to admitting that he might be right.

* * *

**Entering Vienna Airspace. 11:23 pm. **

'Uh… sir?'

'…'

'Mister Kaiba, sir?'

'Mff. W-what? Oh, I… I wasn't asleep.'

'Of course not, sir. I just… thought you'd like to know that we're now approaching Austrian airspace within forty five minutes of the landing site, though I think we may be experiencing a small technical difficulty.

That wakes him up a little. Technical difficulties of planes are never a good thing. Especially not technical difficulties on Kaiba Corporation planes because it stands to reason that planes as good as theirs shouldn't ever get technical difficulties at all. 'Technical difficult? Oh-kay, define "small technical difficulty" for me.'

'There appears to be no signal whatsoever from the airbase and we've been signalling them for going on half an hour now. It's likely that the chaos we observed on international stations is still going on here. For all we know the entire airport is in chaos. Or shut down completely.'

'Yeah,' Mokuba rubs his eyes and continues to tell himself he really wasn't sleeping. 'I figured it might be something like that.'

'As your advisor in this situation, I strongly suggest we opt to turn back now, Mister Kaiba.'

'…'

Marcus shifts a little in response to Mokuba's silence. No wonder, though. Mokuba expected that.

'What's your opinion, mister Kaiba?'

He wishes he _looked_ a little older than he does because he's really starting to get how Yugi must've felt being mistaken for a sixth grader all the time, and Mokuba knows that when his brother was this age, he already had these guys asking "how high" when he said jump. For some reason Mokuba just can't seem to emulate the effect his brother has on them.

Still, he's doing his best, and so long as he's technically paying their wages in his older brother's absence…

'…No.' He looks up, resolutely. 'We're not turning back..'

'What about over flights? Any other sign of planes within the vicinity.'

'Nothing within Vienna airspace, and the only other European-bound flight appears to be a Boeing 474 currently en route from Cairo to London International Airport, sir. Other than that there's not much that we can pick up from here, but the silence could suggest anything. There could be vehicles down there we're just not aware of, but it's still _extremely_ dangerous to attempt a landing without a ground crew or guidance.

'So? This is Kaiba Corp. The pilot can handle it. We only employ the best here.'

'…Sir?'

'Don't bother, Marcus. If our pilot can't land an aircraft without having the whole thing on autopilot then he shouldn't be working for us in the first place, Marcus. We hire the best here and if that guy in there really is the best? Then he's going to land the plane. Besides,' he shuffles a little. 'If my brother is down there –and I have as good feeling that he is – then we're going down their after him. No buts.'

'Sir… Mokuba, I should remind you that we're not even certain Mister Kaiba is in Vienna.'

Mokuba smiles at him and means it. 'Guess you just aren't lucky enough to have a duellist's instinct for seeking out other duellists then, do you Marcus?' Or a little brother's instincts for seeking out the older one, he adds in thought, but doesn't say aloud.

'Ah, Sir, where are you—?'

'The cockpit. Obviously. They might need some help in there.'

'But I—'

'Yeah, Marcus?'

'…Nothing sir. It doesn't matter.'

Mokuba nods –yes, it really _doesn't_ matter what Marcus thinks about any of this, no matter how close he might be to being right– and turns to enter the cockpit.

* * *

**Highway En-Route to Vienna International Airport. 11:23 pm. **

He isn't sure exactly what it that Yami did up there. all he knows is that one minute his view is being obscured by a creature looking just about ready to tear him to pieces if it got through the windshield, and the next Yami is muttering strange words under his breath and the creature is thrown from the vehicle on a flurry of black sparks. Which is totally fine by him. He really likes being able to see the road he's driving on.

He also likes having control of the wheel so that now he decides how fast they're moving rather than Yami. Still he's starting to think Yami had a point for speeding.

'Whoa!'

'Hm. Yeah. _Not_ a move I like to use often,' Yami is grimacing faintly as he ducks back down from the skylight, still shaking strange black particles of… (Yugi can only think to call it "anti-light") away from his fingers.

'Yami what the hell did you do?'

'A little reverse shadow charge into its face, nothing more. Don't worry I doubt very much I damaged it permanently.'

'Oh… oh-kay, I had no idea you could do that.'

'Actually neither did I until I actually tried to. Those things are like lightning even in close quarters I had to discharge three kinds before I even caught up to it.'

'You're bleeding.'

It's running right down his arm and only now does Yami seem to notice it. 'Yes, the glass on the roof window is broken. And that's _my_ line, Yugi.'

'Sure it is. I hate to be a downer, Yami, but I have a feeling we can't outrun these things forever.'

'We don't have to; we just need to get beyond the airport.'

'And that will help us… _how_ exactly?'

'I have no idea, but at any rate we'll increase our numbers. Did you Joey?'

'I tried, there's no signal.' The car shudders a little but it's doing a lot better than it was when Yami was driving it and neither of them wonders about what they just ran over.

'We'll be safe for a while, so long as there aren't anymore of them. They might have given up the chase.' Yami lunges back up through the skylight as if in a bid to check on this statement. The wind has blasted out the tie keeping his hair both back and down, so now it's standing up again, the way Yugi's does and the way Yami's always used to back in the days when they shared a body. Yami goes to such pains to make them both look _different_, these days…

…Which is a really _stupid_ thing to notice when you're driving at 100 kph on a pitch black freeway trying to keep a bunch of really fast, twisted looking, once-human creatures off your tailpipe, but Yugi notices it in spite of that. Sometimes, Yami's distinctiveness is pretty difficult to miss.

'Uh… you know, Yam, I think maybe you'd better move over and let me drive permanently here.'

'I… Yeah, Aibou, that might well be a wise suggestion…'

Yami yells back through the open skylight but his voice has turned cold and serious all over again.

When Yugi glances into the windshield, he can see the reason why. That reason is large, white, cloud shaped, and consists of perhaps three dozen once-human bodies, racing like the wind against the vehicle on the battered Vienna freeway.

'…I think I may need to stay on the roof.'

* * *

**TBC… **


	6. Chapter 6

**I have no idea how this became a multi-parter at all, much less how it got this far but – behold! We have actual plot! We're also cutting a little slack (well okay, a lot of slack) on the original 80-percent dialogue rule, but I do believe it's necessary. Anyway standard disclaimers apply and reviews and concrit are appreciated. **

* * *

Chapter Six.

**Vienna**** Airspace, 5000 ft. 11:33 pm. **

He can tell they're in trouble the second the tremors start.

Doesn't matter what Marcus tries to tell him. Mokuba has felt turbulence at its worst in the back seat of the Blue-Eyes-White-Jet, cruising at an altitude of twenty thousand feet, and it doesn't even come close to this.

'Marcus, gimme a break already, to heck if that's just air resistance! There's something wrong, now tell me what.'

Marcus rubs his head a little.

'…The autopilot's failing sir. But we do have experienced pilots…'

Like hell. The only experienced pilot Mokuba Kaiba would trust to get them out of this kind of situation isn't on the aircraft.

'Yeah, well… how experienced are they with the kind of stuff we saw on the news, Marcus? Let me in the cockpit.'

'Sir?

'You heard me, move aside.'

It's funny, really. A part of Mokuba wants to feel kind of glad that at least one of his employees (who he can actually try and trust this time) seems to be trying to shield him from worry, but since he'd been worried (not to mention very annoyed) ever since they left Japan, Marcus hasn't really helped him., (the shaking is only adding to his irritation), so Mokuba shoves his way through the door.

And freezes dead in his tracks when he gets there.

It looks like something out of a horror movie. A really bad one with substandard visual effects that manage to look more sick than terrifying. The entire viewing window is glazed over with a mess of sticky whiteness –whiteness which glows like midnight fungus or something out of a radium laboratory and as Mokuba keeps looking, he sees the stickiness take on forms. _Human_ forms. Really, really, _creepily_ human, with hands and nails (sort of) and web-like fingers gripping the glass and Mokuba really feels like the fifteen year old kid he is when he manages to whisper. 'Oh, shit, Marcus what the hell _is_ that?'

Whatever it is, it's coating the plane like an extra skin, clinging on against freezing winds' as their downward decent becomes more and more unstable.

Whatever it is, it's not going to help them land.

* * *

**Vienna**** Airspace, 4000 ft. 11:33 pm. **

'This is Brava three-two-one sending out request for assistance to all available flight paths and stations, Brava three-two-one over.'

'…'

'Repeat this is Brava three-two-one, connection and main flight vehicle of Kaiba Corporation intercontinental business transportation. We are experienced technical and navigational difficulties and require _urgent_ assistance, calling all systems; do you read me, over?'

'…**_…He_**_… ca**ll**…_'

'Hello? Hello! Brava three-two-one calling incoming signal, do you read us?

_'…**.Crkle. W**e're… **n**o… he**… fi…si**gnal…** ver**.' _

'Oh, for god's sakes, speak up man!'

_'…Va… **three… one? This**… Brava… two… thr… three, also **Kai**… Connection. O…**er**?' _

'Wait Kaiba Corp? You're Kaiba Corp? I'll be _damned_ the kid was right. I… can you try to clear your signal, connector? I can't understand a word you're—'

_'Brav**a… three-two-**one… my… we're both… Ba **Corp**. _

'You _did_ say Kaiba Corp didn't you? I… repeat your serial number, attendant, repeat – restate your serial code and define your designation. Jaikana, hell is that _you_ down there? You telling me he actually took you _into_ this?'

_'…**eah**. What **the… ll're** you… up **there…** Dais… why?' _

'God, we'll explain _that_ one later. We're having trouble landing here. We were originally destined for runway twelve, Vienna International Airport. Landing has been jeopardised by… by an _unidentifiable factor_, repeat – flight destined for runway twelve is currently experiencing severe technical difficulties and suspected attack. It's our window it, they're _everywhere_, for God's sakes!'

_'**Wa…** wha… you **do… we** c**a**n't… **state yo… inati**on?' _

'There's no _time_ to explain it, man, for god's sakes, we're going to crash here! Get us landed before we get the heir of Kaiba Corporation killed in his own airplane!'

* * *

**Vienna**** International Airport**** Runway Twelve. 11:37 pm. **

'Well as you'll no doubt be glad to hear, a situation that couldn't possibly get more fucked up that it already is actually just managed to.

Kaiba knows he's gripping the fabric of the chair a little too tightly but just looking at his "cargo" is making him tense up right now for reasons he simply can't explain. Usually they're not worth this much attention anyway. 'Remind me never to do you people a favour ever again.'

…In fact, he doesn't really _trust_ them to remind him. He'll just have to write his own post it notes.

'Oh-kay, and you're talking about _what_, exactly, Kaiba?'

'Turns out a Kaiba Corporation jet is approaching flight path twelve and it isn't under my authorisation which means it can only have come from one person.'

'You mean Mokuba?'

'Who else? We two are the only ones who have the clearance. The kid has probably followed me all the way from Tokyo.'

'…You trying to tell me a _teenager_ is flyin' that jet?'

His remark earns him only a second's worth of scornful glance and by the time Joey's realised the problem with what he just said, Kaiba's moved on and doesn't seem to care.

'Oh-kay. Not to be obvious, Kaiba, but aren't _we_ landed on…'

'Exactly, Valentine. _We're_ on that runway. So if you'll excuse me and sit back down already, I've got a jet to move.'

He doesn't as much as glance at them as he disappears into the cockpit. Really, he should have stayed in there the whole damn flight and saved himself the bother.

'Ah… Mister Kaiba—?' 

I know you _heard_ me say that, Pilot, but I don't see you following my orders.'

'But we have to re-establish the engines sir it… it could take several minutes.'

'You've got two of them.'

'But sir, I—'

Air rushes past his cheek and Kaiba assumes it's the turbines restarting. 'One minute fifty four seconds now! _Do it_!'

'Sir… look.'

Hs voice has changed now. Changed to something more dazed than frightened and… And that's not _right_, so Kaiba looks up from the control panel to find out what the hell he means.

The white eyed face has returned to the smashed up glass, frozen in a moment, like a bad illustration. One of those very much non-human hands is reaching through, to spear a pilot through the heart.

Seto doesn't hear the screaming because there's too much white noise blocking it out.

* * *

**Vienna**** Airspace, 3500 ft. 11:40 pm. **

'Brava two-three-three this is Brava one-two-three again, what is your current status on our problem?'

'…'

'Damn it they were there, I swear it I… Brava two-three-three this is Brava one-two-three, are you receiving my messages? Come _on_ Brava, answer me here.'

'…'

'Brava this is the stricken Kaiba Corporation aircraft. Signal distortion is increasing, we… we may be losing hold of your signal and…

'…And I don't know how well I can concentrate with those _things_. It's like fog, Jaikana… Tetsuo. Like the fogs _alive_ and clinging to the glass, freezing over and just breaking away and more of it layering. It's alive and… and we can't _see_ anything. I know it sounds crazy I know I don't I-I _swear_ I'm not taking anything. Brava two-three-three _please_ answer our signal.'

'…'

'Brava, listen to me, we _need_ landing guidance and we need it now. Brava two-three-three are you receiving me? Hello? _Are you receiving_? Where the hell did you go?'

'…'

'Jaikana, gods _damn it, _help me out here!'

* * *

**Vienna**** International Airport**** Runway Twelve. 11:43 pm. **

Seto Kaiba is running out of patience.

Which, given his current circumstances (and his rather strategic position –located with his back shoved firmly against a well locked cockpit door), is kind of understandable.

'There's no sense acting like such a fool about it, Wheeler. I wasn't expecting to be in this situation in the first place and you sure as hell haven't helped me along. Don't you think we've already _tried_ to find another way?'

'So what, you telling me that the engines bust? We're stuck here, totally? No way out?'

'I'm telling you we lack the fuel, time and pilots to even think about even taking off right now anyway, mutt.'

'Kaiba, will you seriously_ try _to be a little _clearer_ about this. I have no idea what's supposed to be happening.'

'…Yeah an' whaddya mean, _we lack the pilots_? We had two of em, last I checked!'

'Yeah, well, now we don't.'

The shocked silence lasts the whole time it takes for Kaiba to reappear from the under-floor storage unit.

'_Kaiba_…'

'Oh, _God_.'

'You're kidding me, right? They can't have been… Kaiba?'

'Forget the pilots. To be totally honest I can fly a plane anyway, if worst comes to worst. We don't need them.'

Shocked silence continues for an over drawn-out pause, but any considered attempts to tell him he's heartless are met with impatient glares that warn them not to even think about it. 'Look we don't have time for raising moral issues. _They're_ dead or _gone_ or whatever those freaks are planning to do to them. But the people on that incoming plane are _not_. If my brother's amongst them you'd better pray it stays that way, because god knows I should've known better than to even consider doing you idiots a favour like this in the first place and it wouldn't have happened if Yugi didn't owe me the duel of a lifetime!'

'I thought you said that you owed him?'

'Be quiet, Valentine. Or do you go by _Wheeler_ now?'

'Oh-kay… Kaiba, I'm going to let that one slip on this one little occasion, but just _where_ exactly did you get those big lights? Actually scratch that – never mind where they came from, just tell me what you're doing with them?'

Kaiba doesn't dignify them with a response that time, which is so very like him that hardy anyone notices.

It takes him only a few seconds longer before he makes his mind up and releases his shoulder block on the cockpit door –mercifully, it's no longer rattling. So he races for the airplane exit and grips the metal in both hands.

The handle sticks when he tries to force it. So he tried to force it harder still, opting for delivering a kick to its front that could floor a martial arts kancho. It's kind if funny, really, how the only thing none of them wonder about was exactly where Kaiba had learned to kick down doors like that in the first place.

'Kaiba, wait, you _can't_ go out there!'

'Can't I? Just try and _stop_ me.'

'What the hell, Kaiba? What good's it gonna do if you just get yourself ripped to pieces?!'

'Let go of my arm or regret it, Taylor. I'm _not_ about to let my little brother die in a plane crash because we parked badly. If it's him in that jet –and I have every reason to believe it is– then he's going to smash right into this craft at one hundred and thirty miles per hour if I don't either get this damn thing out of their way or get them out of ours. Gardner, shut the door behind me.'

Before Téa can open her mouth to answer, argue with or comment on this suggestion, the airplane door is open and Kaiba has vanished into the darkness, leaving them standing in a disturbed silence, waiting for the sounds of screaming and cries that are sort-of, yet-anything-but human. They never come. Nobody relaxes.

'God… I take it all back, Joey. He really _is_ a lunatic.'

'…Do you know, guys, I really think Kaiba might be lightening up a little. I mean he actually bothered to explain things to us before he charged out into the—'

'Not _now_, Bakura.'

'…Sorry.'

* * *

**Vienna Airspace 2000 feet, 11:43 pm. **

On the bright side, at least the monsters have started to peel away from the glass.

They've been struggling with the reinforced surface for several thousand feet now, and their frozen bodies are breaking to pieces – and yet some still continue to cling with their hands and toes and hair and whatever else. It doesn't make Mokuba feel any better because now he'd got to thinking about what those things could do to his brother and what he's gotten their last good pilots into.

He's still thinking this when the pilot in question sits up yelling.

'Sir, there's someone on the runway! They just came into viewing level, we're being given a signal to steer several degrees right.'

Mokuba loosens his grip on the back of the pilot's chair, blinks and forces himself not to overreact.

_Seto_. '…Daisuke, can you control the plane that much?'

'I… we can try to, sir.'

'Do it, now. You're supposed to be experienced.'

'Sir?'

'You see the guy with the lights down there, right? So move the plane in that direction, already!'

* * *

**Highway En-Route to Vienna International Airport. 11:50 pm. **

Yugi Muto hates driving. Especially in the dark.

'You… you sure you're okay up there, Yami?'

'I'm fine, Yugi, keep your eyes on the road!'

This kind of explains why he's failed his test three times, (while also running over two garbage cans and ending up with Jounouchi swearing never to get in a car with Yugi sitting behind the wheel _ever_ again. Which is really saying something; given that Jounouchi has experienced _Honda's_ driving way more often than Yugi's.)

He is still, however, better at it than Yam is and probably ever will be.

That's why Yugi keeps on driving, even with white-grey shadows curling around the vehicle and the rather uncomfortable sensation of shadow magic, creeping around his ears like the smoke of cigars.

'Keep my eyes on the road. Yeah. Sure. That's working. Yami, how fast do those things _go_ exactly?

'The speed of darkness, I'd expect. Nothing close to the speed of light but enough.'

'But this jeep has a limit of—' A bump in the road followed by a heavy swallow and Yugi has simply _no_ idea at all how Yami manages to keep his footing. '—Of one hundred and fifty, Yami!'

'And I notice you're not pushing that limit. This might be a good time to do so, Yugi. I don't know how long we've held them off for!'

Yami's hand appears through the skylight and Yugi can practically smell the brimstone, like something out of a hellfire, pulsing on his Other Self's fingers- the darkness of the shadows clings long and hard. He'll smell like this for days afterwards – a sign of what he's gone through in his mastery of darkness.

The body of another creature collapses against the bonnet and Yugi would've run over it as it slipped down onto the tarmac, except the body seems to have totally disintegrated by the time the ragged remains of its clothing are snatched beneath the wheels.

'Ah! Y-Yami is it just me or was that one…?'

'Falling into pieces before it even hit the windshield,' Yami's voice is cold and dangerous, filled with the rage Yugi always hates to hear from his Other. 'The dark spirits are pushing these human bodies far beyond their limits. They use up all the body's energy, then they just step out of the carcass and leave it to rot.'

'Yeah… that sounds pretty gross. And the people they just…'

Yugi tries to figure out how to say it as he thinks about the guy who met them getting off the plane, and the taxi driver who didn't speak Japanese and the hotel manager who did and who wanted him to show her the cards they were using in the tournament.

Yugi feels his eyes water just a little. His fingers grip the wheel too tightly and one hundred and twenty miles per hour seems to slow to a crawling space. 'Oh, man… It's going to kill them all, isn't it? It's really going to… they're all _gone_.'

He has to tell himself it's not their fault now. They're just normal human bodies taken over and turned into shells and none of them will remember the moment they went crazy. It's not them trying to kill him and his other – it's not their shadows wearing him down. They're just lost bodies and soon to be lost souls and…

And Yugi just can't blame them for that, no matter how they try to kill him. They don't know what they're doing. Its _humans_ his other is taking apart and they don't deserve to be destroyed this way… no wonder he could feel so much guilt and anger pulsing against their soul-link.

'Yes. The shadows drain their bodies and take their minds. Every _single_ one of them! There might be nothing left to rescue now.' Yami somehow must have heard him from up there in the raging wind. And, again, that's _really_ something.

Not quite as big a something as the fiend that attacks them from in front, though, taking a back-facing Yami by surprise and sending him jolting into the jeep's glass rooftop. The already shattered glass of the front breaks a little further beneath the pressure and Yugi feels the pane above shatter, the shards glancing off the inside of the windshield. 'Yami!'

'Yugi! Stay down!'

The warning isn't heeded, because there's no way Yugi _can_ get down. Yami's leg glances against his shoulder far-too-hard and he can practically feel the claws of the beasts overhead, scraping across his others cheeks.

_It's not their fault; it's not their fault… _

He can feel them, and _hear_ them too, the shockwaves of the creatures attack at just over a hundred miles per hour. The shock sends both of Yugi's hands flying from the steering wheel. Overhead, he hears Yami yelling but can't quite make out what he's saying.

_It's not their— _

His eyes aren't on the road any longer.

_—Fault. _

And a few seconds later, neither is the vehicle.

* * *

** TBC.**


	7. Chapter 7

* * *

Chapter Seven.

**Vienna International Airport, Kaiba Corporation Jet Brava Two-Three-Three. 11:46 pm. **

'…Holy crap.'

'You just said that, Joey. You just said it _three times_ already, I think we get the picture.'

'Well you don't "get it" enough, man, Téa! I repeat –holy crap, that guy is a _maniac_!'

'Did he just… he actually just _went out there_, didn't he?'

'Why the _hell_ did he…?'

'They're going to kill him! Those things out there, when they see the light…'

'They'll be on him like a freaking _plague_. I tell you, Kaiba's totally lost it!'

'God damn it, what are we supposed to do now? We can't… we have to help him, Joey!'

'Help him?' Joey doesn't know why a part of his brain objects so violently to that statement (or actually he does, but doesn't want to admit it, because Yugi would probably be ashamed of him) but it does.

He figures it's just the anger talking –why _should they_ help a guy who just ran into his own death trap, especially when it's that guy in particular? It's not the way Joey normally thinks, not even about Seto Kaiba. Not these days, not after meeting Yugi. 'He's the one who ran out there, we're only gonna get ourselves killed if we go after him!'

'Which didn't stop you when it was Yugi in question,' Bakura speaks politely and calmly in just the kind of tone that means Joey can't bring himself to argue with him, even though he wants to. 'Who is still out there, by the way.'

Joey tries to calm himself down and let his logic back in control. Because Bakura's right, isn't he? Even if it's _Kaiba_ they can't just _leave_ him…

'Man, Yugi didn't _try_ to get in this mess!'

'What else could he _do_, hun? It's his _brother_ out there and Kaiba's a jerk, but that kid is his world. Even _I_ see it from this _side_ of the family.'

'He's still an idiot.'

'Idiot with an IQ of one-hundred and seventy-five.'

'Who just ran into a _death trap_!'

'Yeah.'

'Isn't that supposed to be Yugi's job?'

'…I think it's supposed to be _our_ job.'

'Only when it concerns all of us and Yuugi.'

'Well, yeah. That too.'

'Right. Sure as hell doesn't count if Seto Kaiba's the one who does it.'

The silence hangs for a very long second, thick and cold and uncomfortable. Outside, Joey can still hear Kaiba's running footsteps, but not the sound of freaks and demons tearing him to pieces. Which is good, really.

…A brother running to save his family.

Joey can't turn his back on that. No. Not even if it's Kaiba. And of course, really, he _knew_ that from the start, no matter how violently his brain tries to deny it and…

Yeah. They're going out there, aren't they?

'…Guess we still owe him for the ride.'

Tristan's expression is half smile, half grimace, as he holds another, massive excuse for a flashlight firmly in one hand and the gun Kaiba gave him in the other. Behind him, Téa is pulling out a tray, possibly to use as a makeshift weapon. 'Yeah. So let's go gettem already!'

And with that single, half insane statement, they follow Kaiba into the darkness.

* * *

**Vienna**** International Airport**** Runway Twelve. 11:47 pm. **

Kaiba figures it's a good sign when he doesn't immediately lose an arm to the creatures that had torn through the windshield earlier, the second he steps out into the darkness and shines the beam at where their "faces" should be.

The silence, however, isn't such a good thing. He knows better than to assume it is. Just as he knows better than to listen to the idiots inside the plane telling him to get back inside and find some other way out of this.

Because Kaiba knows there _is_ no other way, and he's not going to let his brother die. Not because _he_ went and parked in the wrong freaking runway.

He half-sees the monsters all around him (and hear them, too, like a crowd of sirens), but he doesn't see them attack. They ignore the plane, but they're watching _him _as he runs, as if they aren't quite sure what to do with him. Their voices are everywhere, muttering and crying and sobbing and shrieking but for some strange reason, they won't attack. He can feel their breath as it fills the runway like a rotten field of dying fruit. But they don't move in for the kill, not now, in the darkness.

The darkness around him _hurts_ –it _always_ hurt, and he can't deny that, even as often as he once _tried_ to deny the existence of the magic causing such pain. He knows how powerful the darkness is and how it hurts some more than others. It's all to do with your soul, he supposes. He knows he can take it, yet his eyes still ache for the light of the industrial strength torch he's going to use to save his brother.

Kaiba keeps running, and as he runs, he calculates the best position to stand. It will be a mere 1000 feet at which the strength of the torch beam will be powerful enough for the incoming aircraft to see it. The best location is over eighty feet away from his own plane. Too far to make a run for it back, if they decide to go for him, but he doesn't care about that.

If he gets out of this alive (or if his younger brother doesn't), he is going to kill Yugi Mutou ten times over before he hits the ground.

Seto Kaiba knows that there are several ways to fight a battle and only three of them are truly plausible. The first involves running: fuck that, he's never run from anything in his life and if he's going to now, then he's running across the airstrip right into the danger zone. Straight towards the brother who needs him in the middle of an apocalypse. Running away (leaving Mokuba to die) is simply _not_ an option.

The second option is to use open, brute force to overpower your opponent. Utilise strength in numbers. If your elf Megami is weak, bring out another two, set yourself some traps and sit out the round. Merge the Blue eyes with two others and form an unstoppable ultimate. Hell, even the Dark Magician Girl could beat down a few good monsters, when equipped with the Magic Spellbook. Depending on circumstances, Seto Kaiba _could_ use that kind of methodology.

But he's still seen the Blue Eyes beaten and Exodia crushed and so many powerful (magical?) cards driven into dust _despite_ their high attack point. He knows that violence doesn't always work. You can't always beat your enemies into submission and you sure as _hell_ can't beat down a jet.

The third option is to think your way out of it. His personal favourite and often the most successful. Use cruelty against your enemies and beat their pride with everything you have. Manipulate their weaknesses and use their stupidity. Confuse them with your words and taunt them with their lack of skill. Let them see how powerful and confident you are before you've even started, so they can see that they've already lost. So not only is that option the most successful, but it also divides itself into sub-options, depending on circumstances, weaponry, available bodies and available intellect.

Seto Kaiba knows their little posse is running short on intellect, but they're _not_ so short on bodies.

These creatures are attracted to the light and heat and yearn to destroy it the second it appears. He knows the freaks will attack him, soon, and likely won't care about his confidence and capability. He also knows that this will probably happen the second he raises the industrial torch to the sky and turns on the beam.

And he knows what Yugi Mutou's friends will do when that happens. Most specifically, what they will do for him.

Seto Kaiba plans to use their actions to the best of his abilities.

The monsters gather and moan in the darkness, somewhere in the distance, an airplane is whirring, and Kaiba turns on the beam.

* * *

**Vienna Airspace 1500 feet, 12:00 pm. **

There's a picture over the dashboard.

It's of two little girls, one not much younger than he is and the other who must only be nine or ten. They must be the pilot's daughters, or something. Mokuba never noticed it before, but he sees it now.

Funny, the things you notice when you're falling to your death in the direction of a single, beaming light that barely registers on the radar.

'Current altitude is one-thousand five hundred feet. Descending rapidly.'

Still, it can't possibly get any worse…

'Sir I…'

…Okay, maybe he's about to stand corrected. 'What? What is it?'

'It's the left wheel, sir –it won't open. Those things must've damaged the landing mechanism.'

Oh. And isn't _that_ like something straight out of a movie. The co-pilot swears but Mokuba barely hears him. His throat feels as dry as a bone and he's trying not to let himself tremble. After all, his brother wouldn't. He's glad the turbulence has faded in their decent, because he doesn't think he could handle it. His legs feel like they're turning into wooden tapers and are going to snap any second.

'Can… can you make that runway with just one wheel? And with autopilot disengaged?' Mokuba tries not to let disbelief creep into his voice as he says that but he honestly can't help it.

'I don't really have a choice in the matter, do I, sir?'

It's not the way the employees usually talk to him. Normally they treat him just like they do his brother and would never think of sounding rude or angry, in case they upset the best paying employer this side of the country. He's not used to it. It makes him feel uneasy. Sweat is beading on the pilot's forehead and when Mokuba looks at him, he sees…

He sees a frightened man who's probably thinking about those little girls in the picture over the dashboard, just as much as Mokuba is thinking of his brother.

'Yeah… what's your name again?'

'Minowa. Minowa Daisuke, sir. And the girls in the picture you're looking at are Ai and Madoka. They're thirteen and seven.' He adds without being asked. Mokuba realises with embarrassment that he is staring at the picture. The co pilot glimpses but doesn't speak. His face is pale as bone and in the doorway, Marcus doesn't say a word. The pilot –Daisuke– smiles a little. 'Ai is nearly your age, isn't she? I'd love to see _her_ running a company. She can hardly even handle a weekend job without complaining. She'll be alright, though. She's strong and… and that matters. It's what she needs to be in a world like this. Strong and gentle.'

The plane rocks on the last trails of turbulence and suddenly, Mokuba really _does_ feel like a kid. He remembers being soulless in a locked room beneath castle walls, feeling nothing but cold gravel beneath his hands and stone against his back. Just like then, he realises. He feels just the way he did in Pegasus's dungeon. Just a silly, childish, stupid teenager who has just gotten good people, not to mention himself, into one hell of a mess.

'…I guess you're right.' Mokuba says uneasily, and then he adds. 'There isn't any choice.'

But he's gotten people out of messes before, right? He's _seen_ hell, and it only looks a little bit like this.

'Then let me work. I'll get us down, sir. I promise.'

'…Okay.'

Mokuba repeats the names Ai and Madoka and Minowa Daisuke over and over again in his mind, and finds himself promising, live or die, that he isn't going to forget.

* * *

**Vienna**** International Airport**** Runway Twelve. 12:05 am. **

Joey Wheeler has had a lot of "scream for Yugi" moments in his life. This is kind of weird, given that Yugi has been only four foot ten since they left high school and couldn't survive a fist fight anymore than Joey could a maths seminar, but that doesn't change the fact that they happen. These "scream for Yugi" moments tend to occur when greater forces are attacking, apocalypses are nearing, and/or real live monsters are coming out of duel cards.

And this, Joey figures, definitely counts as yet another "scream for Yugi" moment.

There are hundreds of them –no, thousands. They haven't stopped coming since the lights came on, and when Joey looks up, he can see them in their masses filling the sky. All part human and part totally _not_, broken bones hanging and white hair flying, like thousands of moths, dancing round a flame. Except that moths don't _drift_ like that –they flutter and flap and generally go nuts until they fall into the fire and kill themselves, and stopping all of _these_ things obviously isn't going to be that easy.

The freaks are tearing at _Mai's_ hair no matter how much she beats at them –small freaks, or rather the remains of them, (and Joey isn't even going to think about what caused them to fall apart) and yet they still keep going for the humans with whatever flesh and bones they have. It's simply too gross to think about, and even grosser to fight. They're dead and yet they keep on coming. And once again, it feels just like something out of Tristan's movies, only bigger and scarier and a whole lot _worse_.

But Tristan and Kaiba are still standing steady, industrial strength torches held above their heads. Mai is shielding Téa with her arms for reasons Joey can't explain. Bakura is…

He has no idea where Bakura is.

So Joey figures it's up to him. Because if _he_ doesn't protect them, who else is going to? Never mind that Bakura isn't anywhere to be seen all of a sudden and two of them are busy with flashlights –Kaiba's just standing there holding it up with his teeth grit together ignoring any claws that are trying to get to him.

And up in the sky, far beyond the screams of monsters. Joey can hear –or maybe he's just imagining– the drone of an aircraft, coming closer and closer with living people on board it. Living people who might just die if any of them gives up for a second. If so much as a single one of these thousands of freaks is able to take Tristan or Kaiba down.

Great. No pressure, then.

Joey figures he should make a promise –like something out of those corny movies– that no one dies on his watch…

Except for the things that are already dead, and he doesn't want to think about that. He doesn't want to think about the creatures ripping at his flesh and trying to take apart his bones as once just being _humans_, even though it's totally obvious. Every now and then he'll catch a glimpse of a baseball cap or a jacket's insignia or a ribbon tied in once beautiful hair. They were all human, no doubt about it and now…

Now they're just not.

He needs to know what _happened_ here, and what could be happening to _Yugi_, but right now, he doesn't have time for wondering. Right now, as insane as it might sound, he has to protect Kaiba.

He can always kill him for this later, if they all survive.

Téa screeches and Joey hears gunshot as she fires at the shadow of the monster attacking. He's not entirely sure when she got the gun from Tristan but she did, and through the corner of his eyes, he can see her crying. Crying at the thought of what she's doing –what she _has_ to do– to keep them away.

Survival, right now, isn't looking likely.

And suddenly, one of the monster figures is sweeping towards him through the blackness, highlighted freakishly in the glare of an industrial light. It hits like a heavyweight championship boxer and before Joey knows it, he's down on his knees and Téa is crying out, and Tristan is cussing and then…

And then the world turns white.

Joey only thinks he's dead for a fraction of a second, before the light shifts around a shape standing in front of him and he realises that it's just the glare of a _third_ industrial flashlight. All of a sudden the hold of the creatures gripping his shoulders is loosening and something –something _weird_– seems to rip away the shadows that are clawing at his face. He hears Téa gasping and Mai begin a swearword that she never actually finishes.

Joey hears the faintest of half chuckles, and recognizes who it belongs to.

'B-Bakura?'

'Three's my lucky number,' Bakura murmurs through the new source of light. He sounds… uneasy. Almost _embarrassed_. And then things turn as blank as ice again, before Joey can even begin to ask just what the hell is going on.

For several seconds, all he can hear is the painful sound of the light.

* * *

Bakura Ryou is very confused. 

One minute the monsters were everywhere as he ran from the plane to join the others, closing in like an unstoppable blanket of white on the light they carried, and then, all of a sudden, there was nothing _but_ light all around him. Bakura can feel the cold metal of the torch he holds in both his hands, but asides from that; he doesn't feel or see much else.

He doesn't _hurt_, exactly, though he can feel the grey light trembling and slicing and echoing all throughout his skin, and hear the chuckle that comes from beyond it.

**'_Host. Don't struggle, you're making it worse.' _**

_Are… are you my—' _

**_'Who do you _think_ it is, host body? Is there anyone else who can attach to your soul when you run off _halfway round the world_ like this?' _**

Bakura tries to make logic out of what he's hearing. He could've just _sworn_ he heard the Yami-Him's voice in the back of his mind, in the same tone as the voice-in-his-head had been, all those years ago before he truly understood who and what it belonged to. Bakura feels his ribcage tighten.

**_'What the hell you thought you were doing is beyond me, Bakura Ryou. Idiot that you are, for leaving me behind. You should have realised you'd be needing me. Do you have any ideas where I am right now? I'll give you a clue – it's _not close enough_!' _**

Bakura forces himself to take a breath. His lungs feel hot and a familiar sensation is curling in the back of his mind –the feeling of another consciousness, trying to creep in on his own.

But how can that be, with his other self in a separate body and left behind in Japan?

**_'_ Japan_? Oh, my little Ryou, after all these years you _still_ honestly have no idea where my powers can take me, do you? There is _nowhere_ in this world where I can't get to you. But it will take time –time we don't have, so you're going to have to focus if you're planning on getting your _dear_ friends out of this mess.' _**

_'It… it's you aren't you? You're doing this to me.' _

**_'No. This is really all _your_ doing, I'm just helping out a little. Now, shut up. There's too big a gap between us, it's hard to keep control as it is.' _**

_'You promised you _wouldn't_, Yami, I…' _

**_'Shut up. It's this or die, and I doubt you could handle doing this on your own. Wait. It's going to happen.' _**

Bakura opens his mouth to ask what that means, but the question has no time to form. Before he knows it the light has spread, creeping up and down his arms, stained grey by the darkness of the bodies around them. All he can hear is the sound of the light, burning and beating in his ears.

_'What are you… what are _we_ doing, Yami-Bakura?' _

**_'Saving you and your little friends hides, surface. Keep it down and _focus_.' _**

On this occasion, Bakura does as he's told. And then, as the light creeps in fingers down his arms, he looks up. Outside of his own, deep, grey glow, he can make out three powerful lights –one of them held firmly in both of his hands– beaming up into the darkness, attracting the monsters like horses running to a burning barn.

Well, Bakura supposed that he had always considered three to be a lucky number.

* * *

**Highway Shoulder, En-Route to Vienna International Airport. 12:23 pm. **

'Yugi?'

If the shadow magic has been making him feel bad before, he'd gladly take that pressure back now, in exchange for taking _this_ pain away.

'Mm…Yami?'

'It's me, partner. Please, look at me.'

…He doesn't really _want_ to look (not even when taking into account that it's Yami). Because looking would involve opening his eyes and he gets the feeling that's going to _hurt_. Plus, there's something damp caking against his eyelids. It's covering his top lip, too, and he knows it's going to taste like blood.

He doesn't _want_ to open his eyes…

'Yugi.'

…Still, it's hard to ignore a request from a onetime pharaoh and ancient spirit. So Yugi cracks his eyes open a little and, predictably, his lids stick together. And it _does_ hurt, though not as much as he'd feared it might.

Yami is frowning at him overhead, his face a little blurry, at first, but soon clearing up as Yugi blinks away the stickiness. There's blood on his face too, Yugi realises, but he can't remember if it was already there before.

Yami lets out a breath of relief. 'Thank the Gods, you're alright.'

Yugi waits a couple of seconds, concentrating on the feel of Yami's hand on his cheek and the soft, labouring of both of their breathing. He wonders, vaguely, why Yami didn't use their mind link if he's just been unconscious and…

Yugi remembers the crash.

'…Ngh. Yami? H'wcm we're not dead?'

'Technically I _am_ dead. But I guess I just pulled a few strings.'

'Few… strings?'

Yugi can feel Yami smiling even though he's too deep in the middle of a pained wince to actually see it. 'Yes. Metaphysical ones made of shadows and darkness. I think it pretty much saved out lives, but the vehicle is a write off.'

Yuugi isn't even going to bother with working out the meaning in those words and whether or not it's supposed to be a joke. His head hurts too much for that kind of thinking.

And yet he still finds enough voice to speak again, more clearly this time. 'So… so we won't be giving the jeep back?'

The answering laugh is so relieved and quiet that Yugi can barely make it out. 'I can't honestly think how we'd pay for the damage.'

'I told you both our driving is terrible,' Yugi whispers, hissing as he does so. He knows the shadows are getting stronger and car crashes really don't help that feeling. Once over, he would have been dead by now. Usually being close to Yami eased the pressure of them, just a little, but that didn't seem to be working now. Not with so many parts of Yugi's brain and body distracted by different factors of pain, anxiety, fear and urgency. He feels the ground beneath him –soft and grassy, and tries to focus on that feeling. They must have shot well clear of the road. He tilts his head a little. Yugi can't _see_ the wreckage of the jeep that he knows must be there, but he can hear the ticking of its still warm engine. 'I… I'm alright. We need to _move_, Yami.'

'In a little while. I want to make sure you're not…'

Sitting up is _not_ a good idea and before Yugi knows it, he's stuttering with pain, but somehow managing not to cry out. His head feels like it's been smashed in with a hammer. Or several hammers all at once.

'…Hurt. Yugi, easy.'

Yugi can only oblige to that and let Yami take his weight for a moment. He _hates_ the feeling of dependence and unreliability, but he knows he doesn't have a say in the matter –it's either do as Yami says or be _made_ to do it. That thought makes him smile just a little, and the muscles of his jaw tweak with small flares of pain.

'All those spirits. Those people, Yami, where did they go?'

'I sent them away.'

'How? All in one go?'

'Yes. It's complicated.'

Yami's tone is soft and dangerous (to everything that isn't Yugi) and Yugi decides that he doesn't actually want to know how Yami "sent the spirits away". He doesn't always know how to handle Yami when the shadows have been stirring to his command. 'The Other Me?'

'May the humans forgive me, they should _not_ have hurt you. _They_ cannot be forgiven.'

Yugi shivers just a little, understanding what Yami means. Those creatures had been human bodies and will combined supernatural power the likes of which Yuugi hadn't seen in years. For Yami to have destroyed them all, right here right now. And with the air around him now tasting like something totally different to blood, more like ash and cold, hard rain.

Yugi didn't want to think about what Yami must have just unleashed or what it must have done to them.

But now Yami doesn't seem frightening or dangerous. Now he's holding onto Yugi as gently as he can and refusing to let go, whether or not Yugi needs him to be there. There is no trace of harshness or violence, other than the faint smell of the shadows, Yugi can still sense on his Other's skin.

After a few minutes, Yami signals ahead of them with his eyes. 'Look, partner. We're almost there.'

'Yeah, I see it. That must be the airport.'

'Do you think you can walk?'

'Just try and stop me, Other Me.' Yugi is already halfway to his feet, but he needs Yami's help to get the rest of the way. Amazingly, nothing feels broken or severely damaged, and he imagines the blood on his face feels a lot worse than it actually is. Most of the pain is from the shadows that have been pulsing at his mind ever since he arrived in Austria.

It confuses him, slightly, when he realises that it really _has_ been there that long. That he was feeling the growing, nervous pressure of shadows long before he first saw it on the streets. Could his senses _really_ have been so acute? Even then?

Yugi looks up into a starless sky –even with the moon full, everything seems black around him– and then, he sees it. A glimmer of light is drifting through the black sky, small and barely noticeable. He blinks several times, thinking it maybe just a reflection, but when he looks again the glow is still there and dropping rapidly towards the airport.

'Yami, can you see that?'

The way Yami is clinging to his shoulders again suggests that he does and his small nod confirms it. For a while they sit there in silence, watching the falling light in the sky.

'I think… I think that might be a _plane_.'

'I think you're right… could it be our friends?'

Even though it hurts, Yugi finds himself grinning. 'Who else could it be? I knew they'd come, Yami, I _knew_ it.'

* * *

**Cairo**** International Airport**** Boarding Gateway 23, 01:25 am. **

It's really quite remarkable, when she considers it.

They have been stood at the boarding gate for going on thirty-five minutes now, and the security guards are _still_ finding enough metal on Marik's person to set off the alarm system. As she watches, a gold chain and several cuffs land in the inspection tray.

'I'm serious, who focuses this much at this damn time of the night?'

('It's our job to be as thorough as possible to prevent risk to our passengers, sir') A security guard bids him to remove his earrings. How strange, that they hadn't noticed _them_ first.

'International airports tend to ignore the concept of a time zone, Master Marik. These people have likely been working all night.'

('Sir, please stay till and keep your arms away from your sides,') The Security guard finds another chain and several pins.

'Well maybe we should stick all of _them_ in Austria, I mean obviously _they're_ being threatened with eternal night, these guys would fit right in! Ow! Hey, watch it with the hands!'

'Brother, you did not have to conceal…' (Another clatter, a silver chain falls into the tray.) '…Such a large quantity of metal on your person. No wonder suspicions were aroused.'

'How was I to know? The last time I came through one of these places they didn't stop me for such ridiculous things as metal artefacts. Can't you use your Board of Director privileges to help me avoid the… watch it!'

('My apologies, sir, I'm just doing my job.')

Ishizu holds her breath, knowing this would not be a very good time to mention her brother had last been in an aircraft as an unknown stowaway in mind control of the pilots. It's a time she'd rather forget about.

He does not do well around people, she acknowledges, and likely never will do. his childhood was too… complicated for that.

Another clatter lands in the tray. 'Oh come _on_, that can't possibly be made of metal!'

Ishizu waits, and continues to be patient. Sooner or later, they're bound to run out. She just hopes their plane hasn't boarded by then

'I spoke with a young woman from Europe in the book store,' Odion says to her softly as Marik complains. 'She cannot return home for fear of what has happened. There are no longer flights to that area. The same is likely true of England, Ishizu.'

'I understand that.'

'…Then why do we go there?'

'It is the only location I consider possible, and besides…' she hesitates in her speech. Odion blinks.

'Do you sense something from that region, sister?' He uses the name so rarely with her, it almost makes her smile, even now, in the midst of everything.

'Something along those lines, Odion. Gut instinct is perhaps all I have to rely on now. Let us hope they can hold out alone. They have always managed before.'

Odion nods. Understanding, as always.

('Hey, hang on, what's this?')

'Oh… oh, damn it.'

The security guard behind them coughs and when Ishizu looks at him, she sees that he is holding a ceremonial dagger belonging to her brother up to the light. Odion visibly bites his tongue.

Wonderful.

'Uh, yeah, okay, so I forgot about that one and… and there's a perfectly good explanation for it.'

('Ah-huh. Sir, we'll be needing you all to step this way, please.')

* * *


	8. Chapter 8

* * *

_"No, you idiot, I mean the airport's bad kharma!" said Jounouchi, waving at their surroundings. "Think about it! Every time we've been anywhere near an airport, we're always just coming back from a life or death situation or we're about to start one. This is seriously tempting fate."_

– Jounouchi Katsuya, LeDiz's "_Homecomings_."

Chapter Eight. 

**Vienna Airspace 1500 feet, 12:08 pm**

Mokuba Kaiba is looking down into something that his mind can only compare to an atom blast.

At least, that's what it _looks_ like, except for the fact that the smoke is like light and it it seems a lot… smaller than an atom blast should really be. He's seen them in history class videos, though, and knew how bad the effects could be. If that were really caused by something atomic, then everything down there is totally screwed.

'Okay, if that's what it looks like then…'

'Then we may be in more trouble than before,' the pilot (whom he now calls Daisuke) says. All traces of formality and seriousness are gone now, and Mokuba finds himself feeling more and more guilty about what he's paying these people to do and expecting all their money to cover.

Still, no sense in worrying about it now. Not when they're so close.

'It's too late to turn back,' the co pilot says –Mokuba wants to ask his name too, but he guesses this isn't really a good time for it.

They all know it. They've known it ever since the monsters clung to the windows. The monsters are mostly gone now with just a few… _tatters_ (ew!) clinging to the glass. But Mokuba knows they're still around because when he looked down into the light beam on the ground before, he could see them, flitting and crowding around it. Like flecks of dust, so far away.

'I don't… I don't think it's what it _looks_ like sir. There aren't any shockwaves or smoke, it's just…'

'Light,' Mokuba breathes as he realises what the pilot means. And then he leans as far as he can over the console, trying to get a good glimpse of the light source glaring far below them. He realises it's not so much white light as it is grey –still hard to look at, but not nearly as pure as he'd thought it was.

Whatever it is, though, they're flying right into it, and Mokuba doesn't know if that makes their situation better or worse than it was a few minutes ago.

Mokuba's hand creeps unnoticed to the pendant around his neck.

_'Seto, I'm coming. Wait for me.' _

* * *

**Highway Shoulder, En-Route to Vienna International Airport. 12:29 **

The most disturbing thing about all this is that he should honestly be dead by now. Partly from the fact that his brain has just been lashed with concussion shockwaves strong enough to floor somebody twice his size, not to mention that it's being pummelled with shadow energy every second he's out in the open. If it weren't for the link with Yami, strengthening the bond between their souls, Yuugi has no doubt that he'd be a goner.

But Yami's not about to let that happen. Stubborn aibou or no stubborn aibou.

'This isn't sensible, you shouldn't be walking.'

…Right on cue. Yugi's been waiting for him to say that. 'No,' he mumbles the words without meaning to. 'I should be running, but I think that might be one step too fast. And you're the one who smashed up the jeep.'

'Yuugi this _isn't_ funny.'

'I know. _I'm_ the one with concussion here.'

Yami doesn't respond to that, but Yugi knows that's mostly because he can't think _how_ to do so. Yugi takes a step. Which hurts, a little. Mostly in his head and back and where the friction burns from the crash are, but he's got Yami supporting him there so it's okay. He's not going to fall, no matter how much the shadows pound.

That feeling has lessened a little bit, though, since Yami blew the creatures away and since he started feeling… 'Our friends… Yami, they're here. You feel it, right?'

'Yes, I feel it.'

'So, what's stopping us?'

Again, Yami doesn't know how to respond, not without the conversation going in circles. 'Yugi…'

'Yami, please just… help me walk.'

They haven't moved as far as he thought they had, and that's when he realises that the shadows are really kicking in, because now they're messing with his sense of time and distance. If it weren't for Yami's confirmation that they were where Yugi thought they were, he supposes they could've still been miles away from the airport, and Yugi wouldn't have known any better and then, of course…

Urgh. Damn it. He hates the shadows sometimes.

'…In all honesty, Yugi, the jeep is really your fault. You were the one who was driving.'

A semi-laugh is all Yugi can muster. Yami's voice helps like that. It's like some kind of balm, shielding against the shadows.

He's not going to stop. Not now, not when he can feel their friends, so close their hearts are almost touching. He knows that Yami can feel it too, that's why he hasn't forced Yuugi to stay put and is actually _allowing_ him to move (albeit with one arm slung over Yami's shoulder and Yami's arm around his back). He takes another step. Still hurting. Still stabbing, but it's easier this time, and he knows it'll keep getting easier, to an extent.

'What… that sound we heard earlier. It's gone?'

'Yeah. But I have no doubt about it, Yugi. It was _definitely_ a plane. I believe it must have landed.' Yugi nods a little bit, feeling spurred on and in just a little less pain. Actually, it finally feels like they're getting somewhere. Like, dying or not, they're going to fix it before anyone else can suffer.

So when he feels Yami hesitate against him, he knows it can only mean trouble.

'…Yami?'

'Uh. Yugi, as much as I hate to be…'

'…The bearer of bad news,' Yugi finishes Yami's sentence in a mutter. 'What is it, Yami?'

'Look behind you.'

Yuugi looks.

And a few moments later, he wishes he hadn't.

* * *

**Kaiba**** International Airport**** Secure Interview Room 1:40 am. **

_'Reports from our closest airborne observation crew have reported little to no change in the state of the cloud formations now spreading across a large percentage of the Austrian skyline. Our camera crews near to the scene…' _

'Uh, hey there, security?'

The guard looks up at him, and Marik smiles. 'Y'think maybe you could turn that up a little.'

'…What?'

'The radio,' Marik repeats, much to Ishizu's aggravation. 'Could you turn it up?'

'I hardly think you're in a position to be making demands of security, mister Ishtar.'

'Hey it wasn't a demand, okay? I just… wanted to hear the radio. I think it could be important stuff.'

'Where you are now is important, Mister Ishtar. Do you understand the situation?'

'Please, sir, my brother means no disrespect,. He's merely not well hearsed enough in… in interpersonal relations.'

'And I suppose that's your job, is it? To keep this maniac under control? Issue instructions and guidance where needed…'

'Well, yes, he _is_ my brother so to an extent I suppose that's… wait, _instructions_?' Ishizu's eyes narrow. 'What instructions might you be implying.'

'Come on, lady, there's no need to play dumb with us.' The guard sits back in his chair, turning the ceremonial dagger they took from Marik over and over in his fingers, Marik is glaring at it as he does so, face cold in a way that only Ishizu can see. 'We've checked out all your details lady, and if you're thon the Egyptian board of archaeological guidance or whatever…'

'The Secretary General for the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities,' Ishizu corrects him, primly. The security guard merely shrugs and leans forwards on the deck.

'Whatever. I highly doubt that's true. First you board a plane heading for the capital of one of the world's most major first world governments, and then – surprise, surprise– we find this little beauty. So, what I want to know is… did your strategy start before or _after_ they served the in flight peanuts?'

'I suppose our sin tone added to your analysis there, did it?' Marik spits on the floor and Ishizu prays he doesn't lose whatever is left of his temper.

'Oh I'm not the one with racial issues here, Mister Ishtar,' the security guard might as well be scowling. 'Anyhow you might as well spill. The actual authorities will be here in a while, and then you'll have to come out with it anyway. Who knows, the guy next door might have cracked already.'

Well, that, for one thing, is utterly ridiculous, Ishizu thinks to herself, because there isn't anything for Odion to crack _over_. So then, this is a police tactic, isn't it? A method for forcing the guilty to speak.

'You speak as if I don't understand the basic methods of information obtainment in the Egyptian police force, sir,' Ishizu says coldly to the man before her. 'I'm perfectly aware of what you're doing. My brother, as it happens, has nothing to crack over. As I have tried to tell you time and again, this is a _total_ misunderstanding.

Marik leans back in his chair and smirks. 'So. You gonna turn the radio up now?'

'Be quiet,' the security guard (or police officer, it's honestly difficult to tell) slams his fists on the desk before them, Ishizu feels her insides start slightly but Marik makes no reaction other than a quick roll of his eyes. 'This is serious business here! In case you hadn't noticed you're in deep shit! And here you are asking for the _radio_ to be turned up.'

'I happen to like what they're playing at the moment. And we will be in deep shit, _sir. _Butonly if we miss our _plane_,' Marik snaps.

'Oh, and why might that be, _Ishtar_? Is it too terrible a thought that the British government might last out for just one more week?' The guard says. And with those words, all hopes Ishizu had of her brother keeping his composure fly right out of the ventilation shaft.

'Oh, for the sake of the Gods, we don't have _time_ for this,' Marik mutters. And before Ishizu can say a word, Marik is reaching for his belt. She feels her whole body tense up on impulse and the same happens to their security guard. Ishizu sees a flash of metal glistening at her brother's belt, a flash of plastic in the security guards hand.

The whole exchange takes less than a second, and then everything is still and bright.

* * *

**The Black Crown Game Store second floor flat. 07:00 am. **

Duke is trying to place a call to Norway.

Actually, no, scratch that. He's been trying to place a call to Norway for going on the last _six hours_. He got up at midnight just to place it.

Duke doesn't often place calls to Europe and he's starting to remember why. It really isn't working well. Mostly because he keeps getting told they're "experiencing network congestion and could you please try again later".

'Not much chance of that, lady. The deal is meant to be going through now…'

Except it wasn't going to happen. a major corporate deal with England that he stayed up into the small hours to deal with, and he couldn't even get a call through.

So he instead, turns his attention back to the television.

It's the same thing on every channel that's not related to shopping or call-in game shows. And Duke curses it for its interference with his business. He's not sure what's going on down there (he's got the TV on mute and whatever's happening they obviously don't seem to be able to get close enough to it anymore to give him a decent television image, but whatever it is it must be big to have taken over every station like this.)

And then, not long after he put it down, the phone rings, and Duke is just putting on his phone voice to say "Hell, Black Crown Gaming services how may I—' when whoever he's talking to interrupts and informs him instantly that no – this isn't the dealers calling him back.

'_Oh thank goodness you're there_!'

Instinct allows Duke to pull the phone away from his ear at least a fraction of a second before he's being deafened by the virtual scream on the other side. Actually, it's probably not so much that the caller is actually screaming as it is the fact that there's enough static on the line to make it sound as if she's calling in the middle of a lightning storm. Still she sounds pretty hysterical, either way. _'D-Duke? That is you isn't it? It's me, Serenity! Do... do you remember me?' _

In fact now that he listens more closely… '…Wait, Serenity? Serenity Wheeler?'

Does he remember _her_? Ha. How could he ever _forget_?

_'Y-yes. Yes it's me, Duke. S-sorry about all the noise this is a payphone, my credit ran out and… oh, I'm so glad you picked up, I was so worried!' _

Wow. Okay. Cute girl calling at a really late hour of the night while the brother isn't present… Apparently worried. About _him_. This is certainly better than calling Norway. Still, not that he's not really, really happy to hear Serenity sounding so glad for his safety, first things first 'Uh… hey. Wait, isn't it kind of late over there?'

_'Y-yes. I've been on the phone for a while now. I've been calling everyone trying to_ get through.'

'Everyone?'

_'Yes,'_ she sounds calmer now, anyway, even if her voice is still breaking with static. _'My brother, and Yugi, and Tristan and I even found Téa's number but… but nothing, and then I saw the news, you see, and… well. I figured.'_

She figured. Sure she figured. Trouble with darkness equals her brother being involved in some way. _That_ certainly didn't take a genius to work out.

Serenity lets out a breath she seems to have been holding. _'It's just… no matter who I called, they never answered me. Except for the Game shop and then Mister Muto said Yuugi wasn't there. He was away on a tournament and… And then there's the news and then I took a nap and…' _

She goes silent. 'Yeah? Then what? Take a deep breath before you say, girl.'

_'…You'll just think it's silly.' _

Duke's lips twitch into a smile. 'Why don't you try me? I might surprise you.'

There's silence on the phone for a few seconds before a quiet voice says: '_I… I dreamed it.'_

Duke blinks.

_'Okay, I… I know it sounds silly, Duke, but… but you've seen how strange things can be when my brother's involved with them, haven't you? I saw white creatures and blood and a falling plane and… and I just wanted to be _safe_ and…' _

So. Chaos in Europe. Phone lines not working, and the entirety of the "duckling gang" (as he once heard Valentine call them) missing and un-contactable via phone.

Duke's a logical guy. He makes the connection fairly quickly.

'Serenity… hey, it's okay.' He doesn't mean to interrupt her so abruptly, (you never interrupt a lady after all) but he really can't _help_ it, because even as he listens to her, he's looking over at the television set and seeing all hell breaking loose from the air-cameras they've got hovering near the edge of the chaos growing somewhere near the country of Duke's call placement. 'I believe you. Trust me; I'm watching the news _right_ now. If you're going crazy then so am I, and… probably the rest of Europe.'

The voice on the line sniffles a bit, or maybe it's just more static. 'But… our TV went out half an hour ago, Duke, I have no idea what's going on now.'

Duke swallows hard. 'Weeell I… think I might be able to provide a few clues there. Serenity… where are you right now?

'Oh… I, I'm in Greenwich city. That's where we're staying, with an aunt right now. She lives in Resident District Three…'

Duke takes a moment to weigh up some figures. The possibility of getting a call through and sealing a really, really big deal with the European Gamer Committee, against the logic of driving two hours across Tokyo to get to the house of a girl who's brother would probably murder him on sight if he knew about it.

'…Tell you what, 'Ren, I'll come over.'

The line is silent for a second, before a quiet. _'You will? But Duke you're in…'_

' Tokyo? Yeah, I know. I can get there in a couple of hours if you can just sit tight. We can be there in spirit, if nothing else, right?'

_'…Okay. Thank you Duke, I'm sorry to be a bother. ' _

'Hey, for you? It's no bother at all, girl.'

_'Okay I… thank you, I just… thanks.' _

As soon as she hangs up, Duke starts to feel a numbness crawling through his fingers, remembering a story he once heard when he was little about how blind people saw things others couldn't. Maybe that applied to the no-longer-blind, too.

Whatever the case he was soon grabbing his coat and making a beeline for the room where he left his car keys. All the while muttering: 'Man, Yuugi, not _again_,' and wondering whether or not he should actually be thanking the guy.

* * *

**Vienna**** International Airport**** Runway. 12:20 am. **

Bakura can't feel the palms of his hands.

…That's about it, really. The rest of him feels pretty much okay. He's breathing and blinking and as far as he's aware he's still standing up, despite that fact a few seconds ago (if it actually was just a few seconds and hid sense of time hasn't been distorted) the pressure building in his body had made him feel like he was going to pass out. He could hear Yami-Bakura's laughter all the time, louder and louder as the grey light grows stronger.

Then the white glare is gone. Just like that. And Bakura is staring around at his friends. Joey is clutching Mai's wrist as he helps her to stand up. Téa catching her breath in short, sharp gasps and Kaiba…

…Kaiba is actually still standing exactly where he had been a few moments ago, with the industrial torch held high above his head and his expression unyielding as he looked up at the sky. Bakura wouldn't be surprised if he hadn't even flinched.

The first person to speak is Tristan. 'Whoa… Bakura, what the _fuck _did you just…?'

Bakura opens his mouth to answer but no sound comes out.

'They're… gone,' Téa whispers shakily, glancing around. She's right. the monsters that were just attacking… all of them appear to have vanished, nothing remains but white scraps of what Bakura thinks (hopes) is clothing and the occasional severed fragment of what was probably flesh and bone. Otherwise the runway is clean and empty and clear of all monsters.

_'Yami-Bakura… what did you _do_?' _

'Bakura?' Mai asks, standing herself up and brushing at a bleeding cut on her shoulder. 'Ow… _damn_ it. Bakura, what the heck was that?'

'Ask him all about it later,' Kaiba suddenly says, bluntly, without actually turning to look at either of them. His eyes are watering but he's certainly not crying so surely that means he hasn't blinked for a while, not even when the glare was covering anything and Bakura couldn't keep his eyes open. The air is filled with the throbbing hum. 'because just in case you hadn't noticed… _incoming aircraft due for collision_.'

As he watches, Tristan and Joey seem to be regaining their footing and both are hoisting the two more torches back into the air. Apparently, the plane hasn't hit the runway yet. But it's so close that Bakura can hear it and when he looks up, he sees the lights glaring.

It seems to be coming in very fast. Faster than any of them hoped for, and Bakura doesn't know if it's actually turned enough to avoid hitting their aircraft. He staggers a few steps backwards and then Téa is grabbing hold of his wrist to pull him to the side of the runway.

'Bakura I… come on, let's get out of the way. We can't stand there!'

Bakura doesn't argue. But he can hear Joey swearing and Tristan yelling something about speed and distance, and then he _knows_ the plane is coming in too fast. He can feel Téa clutching his shoulders perhaps slightly tighter than she really has to, and, without really meaning to, he holds his breath.

* * *

**Highway Shoulder, En-Route to Vienna International Airport. 12:30 **

There aren't nearly as many of them as there were before.

It's likely that these are the few stronger ones. Strays, which are still more human than monster and who somehow managed to have the willpower to survive being blasted to shreds by whatever shadows Yami just threw at them. Yuugi counts a grand total of six, crawling in around the shrubbery of the roadside. There are a couple more of them coming up from the ruined wreckage of the jeep, a hundred feet behind them.

They look more like humans than ever now. Bones jutting out at disturbing angles and hair of faint colours around their clear, white eyes.

'Tristan's movies,' Yami mutters, and Yuugi really knows what he means.

'So erm.. .what exactly do we do.'

'You can't run…'

'No,' Yugi concedes to that fact. 'But… but I don't think blowing them up is an option either, is it?'

Yami's silence tells him the answer to that question is yes, but he can see Yami's hands clenching into fists anyway and see the defensive stance he takes on. Yami's whole body is trembling with shadows.

They're coming in closer. Only about six of them, really (or five and a half if you want to get technical given how many of them are falling to pieces.) Their eyes are white and cold but still, there's something very much human about them. And why not? Yugi thought. Because human is exactly what they were. Just a couple of days ago they could've walked past each other on the street and not been any the wiser.

Humans, at the root of it. Humans who hated darkness and wanted to be close to the light, even if only to destroy it. Like moths drawn towards a flame.

_Just_ like moths…

'So,' he murmurs, 'is that what you want?'

Yugi remembers the look on the face of the creature that fell apart when it hit his windshield. The fear and panic and desperation. Desperation for what?

'Yugi, get behind me.' Yami's voice is soft and dangerous again, and Yugi knows he's serious. He won't let any of these things get to him. He'll die again before he lets them touch Yugi.

'…No, Yami,' the pain suddenly turns into a numb tickle at the base of his spine and Yami yes widen at Yugi's words. 'Actually, I think… I might know what to do. No sense in wasting all that shadow power.'

'Yugi, I—'

'Don't worry, Pharaoh,' Yugi smiles shakily not feeling nearly as brave as he's acting. And before Yami can think to protest, Yugi pulls away from him and begins to walk towards the monsters.

* * *

Mokuba had never been in a plane crash before. At least, not like this anyway. He doesn't want to repeat the experience. They haven't even hit the ground yet and the plane already feels like its rocking. And he can hear the engines screaming, like falling bomb or the effect of certain duel monster cards.

At some point Marcus dragged him out of the cockpit and Mokuba found himself too utterly surprised to do a thing about it as he was thrown into a chair and forced to buckle up. Not that it's going to make any difference, but Mokuba thanks him mentally all the same.

He never imagined it would be so _loud_. Or that he'd be able to hear the pilot's talking even while they're focusing. The world feels like it's breaking into pieces.

Something thumbs against his chest and when Mokuba looks, he sees that it's his pendant. The picture it holds is getting old now, but Mokuba knows he'd never replace it. It's the only picture he has of Seto smiling. Has been for nearly thirteen years. He thinks about his brother, waiting for him on the International Airport runway just the way Mokuba always knew he would be. Never smiling, but always _there_.

He's focusing on the picture so intently, that when the plane hits the runway, he hardly feels it.

* * *

**TBC… **


	9. Chapter 9

**Here we go again, and thus plots thickens, planes crash, people die and Yami Bakura scares the living daylights out of Duke. Heh. What other havoc might I wreak, I wonder… Standard disclaimers apply. **

**

* * *

**

Chapter Nine. 

**Highway Shoulder, En-Route to Vienna International Airport. 12:31 **

They're not killing him.

That is the first surprise Yami gets when Yugi pulls away from him and begins to walk towards the creatures. They don't attack. Not at first anyway. They wait, patient, watching Yugi as he limps towards them but not one of them moves a single, rotting muscle.

The second surprise is that Yami doesn't feel the need to follow anymore He _had_ attempted to, at first, but he knows the creatures are a great deal faster than he is and Yugi's not the only one who got bruised up in that car accident. So pain and shock stop Yami in his tracks just before Yugi reaches out a hand towards the face of the nearest creature –it's the largest one, it's once human limbs twisted back to front, like an amphibians. Its hair lank and white and wormlike, one eye black and the other socket hollow. Its fingers are long and witchlike and thorn-sharp, and as Yugi takes a last step forwards, one of these rotten hands reaches out and slashes hard across his face.

Yami reacts, as much on impulse as anything else. Before he knows it he's racing forwards, the creatures are scattering backwards and he's reaching out to grab Yugi and pull him away…

Until a heavy tug on their mind-link stops him in his tracks: Yugi, warning him to back off. _'Yami, wait! It's okay, I-I know what I'm doing.' _

_'Yugi, _no_…' _

_'No I… It's alright, Yami trust me. _Please_, just trust me. Step away, you're _frightening_ them.' _

_'I'm frightening… _them_?' _Yami feels himself blinking in bewildered horror, but all the same, he does as Yugi asks him to, gritting his teeth against Yugi's pain and forcing himself not to rush in and end it by ripping that monster apart with his own shadows. The creature has a hold of Yugi's arm with the same hand it just used to slice open his face, clinging on tightly, refusing to let go.

'Th-there… there see? H-he's stepped back, now. He won't hurt you, so… so, you… you can stop hurting me, too.'

The creature doesn't stop. Instead, it _bites_, but Yugi keeps his arm outstretched and still. Yami sees it rip through the cloth of Yugi's cotton sleeve and starts to _swear_ that if he sees blood he's going to _tear_ that thing apart. He doesn't understand why the others haven't moved. He doesn't know what they're _waiting_ for.

_'Maybe they're just testing his limits... letting this one do all of the work…Could they still be that intelligent?' _

The look on Yugi's face suggests they'll be testing those limits for a long while yet. Yugi is terrified. Terrified, and possibly a little disgusted. Yami can _feel_ it, pulsing through every fibre of his being just as it pulses through Yugi himself.

It's just one of the many consequences of having your minds linked directly together –you get to feel your Other's pain. Yami's been feeling Yugi's pain for going on two days now and it's difficult for him to tell where Yugi's anxieties stop and his own begin, or if the heaving sensation in his stomach is his own growing disgust or Yugi's, but both of them push that fear and sickness away anyway, and focus on the creatures before them. Yugi even manages to _smile_.

'O… okay. I know. It's scary, isn't it? No wonder you're attacking us. You're just like moths in candlelight, aren't you? You can't stop coming towards whatever human warmth you can find but… but when you get to it, you either have to rip it apart or else it rips up you. That's… a really human thing, you know.'

Yugi takes a deep breath. His eyes are watering and Yami can feel his own watering too. Behind them the hot engine of the jeep continues to tick and that makes him realise how _quiet_ everything is, all of a sudden. The other five freaks are hardly moving at all. The only sound is the soft scraping of teeth and claws and Yugi's voice, talking to them gently.

'I think… I think I'm scared, too. Of all this. Of all of you. But that's alright, you see. It's okay to be scared, sometimes. It's okay if you're all scared right _now_.'

Whatever Yugi is trying to convince them of, (his forgiveness? His compassion, maybe…) it doesn't seem to be working very well. Yami feels another stab of pain as the creatures grip nearly dislocates Yugi's shoulder, but Yugi just sucks up the pain and keeps talking as if they're still listening. 'I've… been scared for a long while. I know a lot about this darkness and I know sometimes it's not all _bad_. You know that too, of course, because… because you're human. Maybe we've even met before, but I only got here recently so I wouldn't really be too sure.'

Of course. They're human, all of them. He'd been so angry that for a moment he'd forgotten. Yami feels chilled by his own coldness.

That doesn't stop his anger, though. It doesn't stop him fighting to hold the shadows back. The creature keeps non human jaws and claws gripped tightly around Yugi's flesh and bone. There's blood now, bright red and staining his shirt but Yugi still doesn't move. Not an inch. And the creature's grip is half hearted now; its teeth are loosening, as if it's actually…

'…_Calming down_. _See, Yami? Just like I thought…' _

Yami can hardly believe that, but it looks like its _still_ happening whether he believes it is or not.

'So… do you see him?' Yugi whispers and for a moment Yami thinks it's him Yugi is talking to. Except it isn't. Yugi is talking to the monster which is currently ripping at his arm. 'The… the man behind me. He's very important. Do you… do you know his name?'

Nothing. The monsters shift uneasily and Yami shudders as he sees three of them move forwards in Yugi's direction, lips drawn back over their teeth. Either Yugi doesn't notice them or he simply isn't that concerned.

'His name is Atem,' Yugi says, evenly.

Halfway down the highway, the dead street lights begin to flicker and burn. The headlamps of the jeep sputter and the engine shrieks a dying shriek. The earth seems to spasm just a little under the power of the Pharaoh's name spoken so loudly and in such clear reference to him.

And under that same power, the creature gripping Yugi's arm stops biting. It loosens its grip and pulls away, lurching back from Yugi like a frightened animal. Yugi immediately moves to grip his arm and hiss in agony and, at the same time, he blurts out the pharaoh's name again. 'Y-you heard me! His… his name is _Atem_ and, and you can't ignore that, can you? No more than I can! _Atem_!'

And suddenly, Yami understands what it is that Yugi is trying to do.

And Yami knows what to do as well.

* * *

**Kaiba**** International Airport**** Secure Interview Room 1:41 am. **

Ishizu has absolutely no idea how her brother managed to hide the Millennium Rod on his person all the way from the airport security gates to the interrogation room, but somehow, he has done just that. A logical part of her brain vaguely notes that this is probably the thing that was setting off all of the alarms when they tried to get through earlier, but at the moment, that isn't her primary concern.

'Oh… _Gods_. Marik, _please_ tell me you didn't…'

'Okay, I didn't,' Marik places the Millennium Rod back in his belt with one swift movement. The guard is still standing where he had been ten seconds ago, the radio frozen on the way to his mouth, his eyes wide in paralysed alarm. Marik waves a hand in front of his eyes, experimentally. The guard doesn't even twitch. 'Don't look so worried, big sister, it's nothing permanent. He won't remember any of this afterwards and we're not causing any harm.'

Ishizu takes a moment to gather her nerves, but feels her voice dropping to an angry whisper, nonetheless. 'That… that is a _millennium item_, Marik. You have not touched that artefact for years why on _earth_-'

'Well I thought today it might come in handy, what with the world ending and all. Besides. You're the one who said it was urgent that we get to Europe, right? I'm getting us to Europe.'

'_Marik_…' Ishizu bites her tongue. 'If they find out what you've just _done_.'

'Then we'll all be in a whole world of trouble, big sister. But we're going to be in a whole world of trouble anyway –literally, if what you suspect will happen actually occurs. Anyway, they're not _going_ to find out,' Marik says. 'Now, shall we rescue our big brother and continue with our mission?'

Ishizu lets out a stale, long-held breath in what turns out to be an irritated groan. 'I cannot honestly believe we're doing this…'

'Says the woman who rigged a tournament in order to bring together three great entities of power in the form of cards and help rescue her brother from the clutches of his own evil,' Marik's grin when he says that is just a little bit disturbing. Ishizu knows he does it to irritate her. He rounds the table to where the guard is standing and removes the room keys from his belt. 'Now, let's hurry, sister. We don't want to miss our flight.'

'Sometimes I do wonder,' Ishizu murmurs; as she follows him out of the room, casting a quick glance at the still-paralysed security guard behind her as she does so.

* * *

**Runway of Vienna International Airport. 12:34 **

As soon as the plane is so close that Téa can see right in through the windows, she realises what's the matter.

'Bakura, there! The left wheel!'

'I know,' Bakura says. Téa can see his hands clenching into fists, still feeling the tremble of whatever it was he just did to scare away the monsters. 'It must have never ejected properly. Something is blocking it.'

'_Blocking it_? Like what?' She gasps, but Bakura doesn't seem to have an answer. Téa sees Mai's mouth opening –presumably to ask how a plane is supposed to land with only two wheels– but by now, the plane is all but touching the runway, still continuing to screech at hundreds of miles per hour, and her question dies away on her lips. She hears Joey yelling from where he's still stood in the runway, the torch dropping out of his hands:

'Uh, guys time to _move_!'

And _boy_, do they move. She sees Joey stopping to grab Kaiba by the shoulder and drag him away whether he wants to move or not. The industrial torch clatters to the ground and somehow, Téa still hears its impact, despite the much louder screeches coming from the aircraft.

And then the plane _tilts_. The left wing collides with the runway and buckles. The remaining two wheels sputter and give way and the plane falls belly down into the ground. It's a silly thought, but Téa is somehow reminded of a failed three-point turn, with the dancer crumpling to one side. She's seen it happening onstage often enough, and remembers perfectly how the dancer looks as her ligaments are torn by the fall.

This is so much worse than a failed pirouette.

The lack of wheels however, doesn't seem to stop the jet. It keeps going, with no signs of slowing, the killed engines whirring as it scrapes the floor and continues to screech onwards, bringing half the tarmac with it, like it's ripping through paper.

Besides her, Téa hears Mai swearing and feel Bakura's hand snatch out to grip her wrist.

_'Come on, let the breaks work! For gods sakes, let them _work'

The plane's left wing is skidding, now, ripping across the concrete runway with all the noise of a Curse of Dragon, screaming as it's torn apart. Téa has absolutely no idea why that metaphor sprung to mind, but it did, and anyway – it's an apt description. It's still so many metres away from her and yet the noise is still so _loud_.

'It… it's slowed down, hasn't it?' Mai gasps.

'Yeah but… It's not stopping.'

'No,' Bakura is gasping. 'No, it's not.'

And the next thing Téa knows, they're all on the ground. Most of them face down and clinging to the runway as it's all that any of them can do. The whole ground is _shaking_. Téa quickly covers her face with both hands and feels Bakura's arm over her shoulders, too. What _that_ will protect her from she really doesn't know, but it's a nice gesture all the same.

She had thought the noise couldn't possibly get any louder, but as the plane crashes into the side of the airport building, concrete smashing and engines screaming, she realises that she thought wrong. The shaking seems to go on forever, like the whole world has been thrown out of joint. And then, eventually, things at last begin to fall still.

Something patters in her hair. She doesn't find out what until she can find the courage to lift her head up. Small shimmering crystals fall from her hair –broken glass, all over the runway.

Téa feels her blood run cold. And then she looks up and sees the tail end of the Kaiba Corporation Jet smashed into the building besides her, unbreakable windows shattered all around it, catching light from a nearby industrial torch that somebody has dropped on the floor. The front end crumpled like an old tin can.

When the noise and rumbling finally begins to die away into silence, Seto Kaiba is the only one still standing, his eyes fixed in horror on the shattered cockpit.

* * *

Seto Kaiba is a logical man, but the logic has always been coupled with emotion. Perhaps not the same emotions as those ridiculous friends of Muto seem to think are important, but emotions nonetheless.

Pride is an emotion. So is dignity and determination and courage. These things aren't just instincts – he has plenty of those.

Games were, after all, just a reflection of life itself. The important thing was protecting your pieces, no matter what. Seto Kaiba has plenty feeling too. He just knows better than to go around screaming like that idiot Wheeler, or profess compassion to anyone he meets regardless of whether or not they deserve it like Yuugi. Those kind of attitudes will kill you quickly in the business world, even in a company that specialised so heavily in gaming and duel monsters.

So Seto Kaiba never allowed his feelings to control him. Motivate him – yes. But never control him.

They're not controlling him now, as he drops the industrial torch to the ground and begins to run in the direction of the shattered jet. They're not commanding _him_. He's controlling _them_. He's _using_ them, to the best of his ability. Letting his anger force his movement and letting his determination force his judgement.

It is not –_not– _reckless terror which is making him charge in the direction of the Kaiba Corp Jet's shattered cockpit. It is _not_ fear making him scramble up the battered walls of the building, opening veins on the broken glass and skidding against the shattered concrete. It is _not_ panic making him cling to the stone of the second floor of the airport building where the cockpit's doorway has finally come to a halt and pound on the metal cockpit door.

And he's sure as _fuck_ not listening to Gardner yelling at him about how it's too dangerous and how he should stay back out of the way.

He takes a glance at the cockpit but he already knows the pilots are dead. And… god _damn it_, he's going to fire the designers who put this jet together and told him it could withstand crashes at over a hundred miles per hour (irrational – he knows it wasn't really that fast).

It's none of those fearful or panicking emotions that are controlling Seto Kaiba right now, because Seto Kaiba _never_ panics and never _ever_ loses his cool. It's just pure, red blooded determination. Mokuba's name is pounding in his head, a constant, drumming, quickening beat, and Seto Kaiba is not going to let his little brother die because these freaks and Yuugi decided to play heroes.

'Mokuba!'

The door he's pounding on is buckled inwards and the metal's hot beneath his hands. Too hot. It's unlikely to open just from his pounding at it but he doesn't need it open right now. He just needs an answer from the inside. He just needs to know that his brother's okay. It's not fear making him yell Mokuba's name over and over –it's just pure certainty. He needs Mokuba to hear him. He _needs_ to _know_…

The voice from inside seems very quiet, even though he knows it must really be yelling as loud as it can to be heard through the reinforced metal door.

'…Seto?'

_Mokuba_.

* * *

**Kaiba Corporation Jet 3-4-4. (What remains of). 12:35 **

There's a soft, warm thudding sound from somewhere in the aircraft but he can't make out where it is or what it's coming from.

He figures he must've been knocked out, at some point (or… okay then, maybe it was just passing out, but no way in hell is he going to tell anyone else that) because one moment all the noise and ripping metal had been shrieking in his ears and the next, everything went quiet. Now he's awake again and things are still quiet. The engines have died. The aircraft is still.

So that means the thumping sound was coming from him. It was his own heartbeat pounding in his ears. A few moments and a few deep breaths confirm this.

'Um, M-Marcus.'

It takes a few seconds before he gets an answer. 'Yes, sir?'

'We're um… we're not dead.'

'…I… No sir, apparently we're not.'

Mokuba struggles to undo his belt. Its pitch black in here and he can feel the metal surfaces creaking beneath them. If TV is really anything to go by, then there's a good chance this plane is still not the safest place to be. 'We… we should get out of here, now. Get the pilots to…'

'Sir…'

Mokuba doesn't like Marcus's tone. He blinks hard, trying to focus and tries to find the cockpit door. And then he sees that it isn't there anymore. It's hard to make out anything in the pitch black, but he can see the shattered outline of the windows and the wrecked remains of what used to be the cockpit door.

'…So… go check on them, Marcus.'

'I already have, sir.'

Mokuba swallows. It's the closest he can get to a cognitive reaction. He can feel his eyes blurring up with tears but doesn't actually let them fall.

It's his fault. It's all his fault. 'Shit…'

'So… what are your orders now, sir?'

'I… orders?'

Mokuba looks up at Marcus like he can't believe he just asked that question,. How could he? Mokuba's some fifteen year old kid who just dropped them into hell-on-earth with freaks and monsters and all of that. His orders got a father killed and two lives destroyed, and…

'Yes. We need to find Master Kaiba, correct? You're probably the most likely to work out his location before anyone else is killed. It's your call, sir.'

…And yet Marcus is still looking at him, still taking orders and not seeming all that angry at all. Mokuba doesn't quite know why but it makes him feel a little more hopeful. 'I'm not sure at the moment, to be honest. But… if it was my brother guiding us down. He should be out there.' he stops, pauses and looks down at the floor. 'Ai and Madoka… you remember. He said they were his kids. We'll… when we get back…' His sentence trails away.

Marcus doesn't say anything but that's alright. Mokuba needs the silence, for a moment. He just needs a while, to be able to sit and think.

And that's what gives him the chance to hear the banging, loud and rhythmic on what he presumes is the door

_'Mokuba? Mokuba, are you in there! _Mokuba_!' _

_…Seto. _

* * *

**Intercity Highway**** heading out of Domino City. 07:50 am**

Duke Devlin hates traffic jams.

It's taking a little longer to get to Serenity's aunt's apartment than they had anticipated. He's sure she'll appreciate it when he gets there, of course. What kind of girl can doubt you care about her when you six through three hours of cramped rush-hour traffic? But that doesn't chance the simple fact that Devlin hates traffic.

Most commuters use the subways but Duke knows better than to bet on the roads being clear. He knew the route that will take him to Serenity would be this way long before he set out. He did it anyway. Hey, Serenity needed him and there weren't many things he was prepared to get up at that hour in the morning for which weren't related to money, business or the occasional challenge from some smug little wannabe Dungeon Dicer.

As it happens, though, he's been sitting in this very gridlock for going on three quarters of an hour, now, and he's barely moved out of the turn off. It's really starting to grind on his nerves. what's the point of having a convertible with two hundred and fifty horse power if you can't even get onto the highway?

Still after about half an hour, he resigns himself to the fact that they weren't going anywhere. He turns on the radio, searches out a station which was reporting international news and sits back to listen while he waits for the goddamn roads to _move_.

He sure as hell doesn't expect to see a white hair, sneering head, attached to a body which is now sitting in the seat of the convertible. _Right_ next to Duke, as if he'd always been there. His arms and legs folded in a position which can only be described as arrogantly smug

'Holy _shi—_!'

Duke hits the breaks. Hard. Given that the queue is barely moving as it is, that shouldn't really be that noticeable –but apparently it is, because the drivers of the cars behind him start beeping their horns for all they're worth.

The visitor, for his part, leans casually backwards to glance out of the window at the aggravated driver's in the queue behind, and sighs irritably. 'Oh, honestly, the cursed fools seem to think this queue would actually be going somewhere if you hadn't broken like that.' he looks back at Duke and leers. 'So. Devlin. Having a bad morning? I certainly know I am.'

* * *

He takes the first Shadow Passage (channels of magical energy that existed all throughout the human worlds and were discreetly connected to the shadow realm) he can find (a strand of occultist energy drifting in from the north of the city – one of many, many Passages which Yami-Yugi has yet to locate and which Yami-Bakura is going to use to the best of his abilities) in order to catch up with Devlin's vehicle. Only a fool or a commuter would think to use the roads at this hour but then where friends of Muto's are concerned, the definition "fool" can never be too far off.

Hopping between here and Vienna, however, even given the massive influx of Shadow Energy he's been feeling from that particular area of the globe in the last twenty four hours, is perhaps one step too far for his powers. Hence, he opts for hitch hiking with the only member of the little side crew who still happens to be in Domino City. Though only just. He appears to be going somewhere. Yami-Bakura tagged along for the ride.

He only materialized inside of the vehicle by manipulating his internal shadow magic, for Ra's sakes, the idiot doesn't have to have such a paroxysmal freak-out about it.

'You… you shouldn't be in here I mean… what the hell? Why— Yami Bakura… where… Ryou he… what… where… how the fuck?'

'Now then, there's no need to be so impolite. Can't I drop by and visit my dear one-time-host's friends, now and then? I assumed you wouldn't mind one, _small_ passenger.'

Devlin's expression is actually almost impressively flabbergasted. 'Like hell! I'm on an important trip here, you can't just… materialise in peoples vehicles like that! How did you get in here without opening the door?'

'It's called Shadow Manipulation, my not-so-dear human,' Yami Bakura's responds boredly. 'I merely carried myself in here via a darkened passageway. Took me a while to trace your exact signature.' He held up the Millennium ring from where it hung against his shirt. 'You're not exactly what I'd call a massive blip in the supernatural radar. But I got you in the end. Clever little trick, isn't it? Or at least it must seem so to you.'

'Oh,' Duke's voice is as dry as a bone. 'Swell. So what the hell do you want? In case you hadn't realised I'm on an important journey right now.'

'Yes, and going about it very quickly if I might say so,' he feels himself sneering and wonders exactly what on human earth Devlin is using to fragrance this flamboyant vehicle of his. Whatever it is, it smells like a sarcophagi-preparer's herb cabinet. And is that really a dice, hanging from the overhead rear view mirror? How _predictable_. 'You know I have a shadow passenger route which would get us to your destination far quicker than these ridiculous mortal methods of—'

'Uh— No. No _freaking_ way, you're not _touching_ me with any of that darn dark magic stuff, Yami Bakura now… now get out of my car!'

'Do be patient, Devlin, all in good time. As it happens I have a very good reason for wasting my time on you. You see I happen to have a slight problem.'

Devlin snorts. 'Yeah, well so do I. It's about five ten has badly styled white hair and is sitting in my passenger se—'

'Do shut up and let me finish mortal, lets not forget the shadows got me in here and they can dump you wherever I ask them to, also.' Devlin stops talking. Good. 'Now, concerning my situation. In case you hadn't already realised I happen to be missing my Other Half. I am missing him because he thought it would be clever to take a little excursion to a death-zone without me.'

Devlin leans back in his seat, frowning. 'Bakura's in Vienna, yeah? With Yuugi and the others. I figured they might be.'

'You figured correctly. I've already proven to Ryou once that going to such a place without me is really quite stupid behaviour but he would be an idiot and insist on helping out those friends of his.'

Yeah, fine, what's your point? I've got a girl who needs me here and I'm not in the mood for—

'If I've told you to be patient once, I've told you a thousand times, 'Devlin,' Yami Bakura snaps, and –just for a second, he extends a shadow field from his own body and around Devlin's throat, grabbing him in a kind of shadow choke-hold. The boy lurches back into his seat and gasps before Yami Bakura lets the darkness go again and releases him. 'Now. Shut up. Don't make me suffocate you.'

Devlin falls forwards again against the wheel, fighting to catch his breath. 'God… _damn you_, you… are you… fucking _insane_?'

'Possibly. But right now my limited patience is of more of a concern to you than my sanity, little human boy. Don't make me hurt you just to get your attention. Back to the point of my little host…'

He leans back in his seat. The sarcophagi smell isn't actually that bad, once you get used to it. He supposes that it grows on you, just like any other smell of death. 'I've reached out to him once already. Had to help the weakling out of a minor jam, you might say. But I'm not used to extending my powers halfway round the globe, Devlin. And I doubt they would extend that far again as anything more than a form of communication. That's no good to me.'

'And what do you want me to do about it?' Devlin mutters croakily. He really is a very impatient personality even after being choke-held by shadows. Lucky for him Bakura needs him alive and had vowed against killing anything (human, at least) for the next decade or so, just to keep his host happy.

'Simple. You're the big powerful games designer, right? Maybe you're not a Kaiba Corporation goon, but I'm pretty sure you have connections. I need you to use those connections to get me to any place within a hundred miles of central Vienna. From there I can access my own shadow abilities and go the rest of the way myself.'

Devlin sits quietly for a moment letting this fact sink in. the vehicles around them continue to peep and toot incessantly. If they keep it up, Yami-Bakura swears he's going to start calling shadows to the freeway.

'Oh-kay… And I suppose you have a really good reason for _me_ to do that for _you_, huh?'

'Yes. Because I'll let the shadows suffocate you again if you don't.'

Devlin pauses for a long moment, then a smile begins to creep irritatingly across his face. If he was annoying while flustered he's even more so while calm. 'Wow, what a choice. Oh, sure. And Ryou's gonna be really, really happy if you do that, isn't he?'

Bakura twitches a bit before he can suppress it. 'Who says he has to know about it, Devlin? And anyhow, this one little favour will get me out of your hair again, won't it. it can be very beneficial for you,' he said, carefully. 'To be owed a small debt by a spirit of the darkness itself… Very beneficial indeed.'

'It might be, huh?' Devlin actually seems intrigued by that. 'Sorry though, I'm just not convinced by your reasons here. Why would _you_ want to go into a "death zone" as you call it? I hear Vienna's a real mess. They can't even get a camera crew within fifty miles of the city.'

'Because Ryou is out there,' Yami Bakura says, bluntly. 'That's all you need to know. He might be a fool but he's still the other half of my soul and if he gets himself killed out there then its curtains for me too.'

'Sounds like you really _are_ in a jam,' Duke smiles that sickening irritating smile. Yami Bakura is starting to wish he went elsewhere for assistance, not that there was anywhere he really _could_ have gone. 'Okay, then. Whatever. If you're really so urgent to get there, I suppose I could organize a few things… but I've got a condition.'

He should've known. 'And what might that be, Duke Devlin?'

'I'm coming with you. To Vienna.'

It takes a good couple of seconds for his surprise to fade into amusement. Yami Bakura gazes out of the front window at the traffic ahead and smiles. 'I should have known. Now you want to play hero as well, huh?'

'Yeah well. Like you I have my reasons. So that's my deal, either I come with you or you're not going anywhere, Yami Bakura.'

'Seems like a fair compromise,' Yami Bakura says, after a long pause. It's not his concern, after all, whether or not the Devlin boy adds himself to the potential body count currently rising in Austria.

'One other thing. I've got to go see Serenity first… she's Joey's sister,' Devlin clarifies. 'And I promised I'd go round to meet her and tell her not to worry about her brother.'

Yami Bakura suppresses an impatient scowl.' Fine, whatever, but let's speed it up, shall we?'

'How can we? We'll be stuck in this queue for a good few hours yet, the jams won't start to clear until rush hours over.'

Yami-Bakura snorts. 'That, my dear mortal, is a problem which can be easily solved.'

And then he fixes his gaze on the road before him, and _manipulates_. Feeling his shadow owners extend across the dashboard and creep into the engines of the car inn front, then the truck in front of that and the next car afterwards. He draws the shadows in and _pushes_ them out and revels at the look of vague panic that settles across Devlin's face as his car quite literally vanishes from the highway.

* * *

**Runway of Vienna International Airport. 12:36 **

When Seto and Mokuba had first come to the Kaiba household, ten years old and the future of the corporation, he had sneaked out of his wing once and gone to visit his little brother. It had been a stupid thing to do, though he didn't know this at the time. he didn't know he'd be punished for it and even if he had Seto probably wouldn't have cared much anyway. He would've still gone. To see his little brother. To find him in the massive maze of rooms and corridors that was their new home.

When he got to Mokuba's room, he found his brother's door had been locked and had had to tap carefully on the outside to wake him up and get him to come near the door. And that was how they'd stayed for a while, talking to each other sleepily through the wooden door.

This is what Seto Kaiba is reminded of, as he hears his little brother's voice on the other side of the battered cockpit door. Of their hands pressed against either side of the door as they talked right through it.

'S…Seto? That's you right? You're out there?'

'Hey there, kiddo.' He finds his voice is softer than usual. Easily as soft as it was that day ten years ago outside of Mokuba's locked bedroom door where both of them were whispering so as not to wake up the servants.

'I know it… I know you'd be here, Seto I… is Yuugi with you? Are the others there?'

'I've got that Wheeler dork yelling up at me and the rest of their little ragtag bunch along for the ride if that's what you're asking. Are you alright?'

Mokuba's response is familiar, too. It sounds just like a five year olds, scared and angry. '…My head hurts. Seto I think… I think I've done something really bad…'

'No. it's alright. I should've told you I'd be out here. it was logical that you might come.'

'Well, that's my job right? Following you around and all…'

'Is anyone with you?'

'Yeah… Marcus is here, but the pilots are…' his voice trails off. 'Seto?'

'I'm here, Mokuba. And… and yeah, I know about the pilots. I can tell from here. It's a pretty bad bust up in the cockpit. Most of the front end is shattered.'

'Seto…' Mokuba says again. He sounds more desperate this time and Seto can almost imagine he's ten years old again. Frightened, confused and needing his big brother.

The silence hangs between there for a moment. Seto remembers being ten again himself, and being dragged yelling away from his brother's door and forced right back into his own locked room. He remembers the extra three hours of punishment.

But nobody will pull him away from Mokuba. No. Not now. Not ever again.

'It's alright, Mokuba. Stay put. I'll get you out of there.'

'O…Okay. Sure. I can go with that,'

* * *

It's one of those brotherly moments Joey just _hates_.

Mostly because he just can't seem to hate _Kaiba_ the way he usually does when you stick him in a room with Mokuba and put one or both of them through hell on earth. They're just so tight and together, it makes him think about Serenity and when he thinks of her…

…God, Serenity.

She's the last thing he should be thinking about right now, of course, because she's nice and safe and okay on the other side of the planet. But he thinks about her anyway because if she knows about all this, he knows she's bound to be worried about him (and Serenity got the brains of the family, so she's probably already worked it out).

He hates having to make her worry and now he's thinking that maybe he has been. Maybe she's been calling him over and over. And unlike some people, she didn't have a jet to get her out here.

Maybe that was a good thing.

He takes a step back and another deep breath turning around to give the others thumb's-up for Mokuba's apparent safety….

'Joey—!'

…And then he notices Téa's eyes widening and whatever she's about to yell, he never hears it, because by the time it's emerged from her mouth he's face down on the tarmac again with a heavy, powerful, tearing weight pushing down on him from overhead.

_'Oh, shi—!' _

It comes at him out of _nowhere_, and it's not until it's already on top of him and trying to rip out his throat that Joey realises what drew it to him –the light of the torch Kaiba dropped is still shining directly on him. He's like a beacon for whatever freaks are left over after… after what the hell Bakura just did.

And Téa is screaming and Mai is yelling for him and Kaiba's looking down on them in sudden shock and Joey can feel Tristan trying to drag the thing away and ending up behind knocked across the runway. He'd forgotten how strong these things can be. And this one doesn't even have eyes anymore so he has no fucking clue how it even saw the light in the first place. Claws are trying to slash into his stomach and he's hardly managing to duck away from them—

Then he hears someone yelling. '_Stop_!'

And to Joey's total surprise, it does. The spindle-like fingers pull away from his chest, the creature suddenly rips away with a half-whimpering sound, leaving Joey bleeding and shaking as he staggers to his feet, Mai's arms on his shoulders.

He knows that voice. He knows who it is. He just can't believe what it just _did_.

_'…Yugi?_'

* * *

TBC... 


	10. Chapter 10

* * *

Chapter Ten: Thought Patterns, Darkness and Light. 

**Vienna**** International Airport**** Runway 12. 12:38 am **

The creature hits the ground like a sack of bones, then scurries away like a giant, four legged cockroach, of sorts, leaving rips and tears of Joey's uniform and a couple of shallow ones in the flesh of his stomach. Joey watches it nervously for a second as it crawls back several feet and rests itself between him and…

'…Yugi?'

Yugi. Who is standing there, less than twenty feet away of him. Face white, eyes circled with deep, dark lines and a gentle looking hand against his shoulder. The owner of the hand is still shrouded in shadows; But Joey knows exactly who it is, anyway.

'Y…Yugi, that… that's you right? It better be you…' He took a step backwards and staggered against something large and soft. Whatever it is, it shrieks in alarm and hurries out from behind him, joining the other bony-cockroach creature sitting in the middle of the floor. Téa forces herself not to scream. Bakura muttered something under his breath which sounded vaguely like some kind of curse in English. 'If it's not you, then I think we're in trouble. Or dead. Or maybe both…'

'It's me, Joey,' Yugi's voice is barely a whisper, but it echoes loud through the deserted. And Joey wants to run forwards and give him one of those I'm-man-enough-to-do-this-so-shut-up-already hugs he likes to give in times like this, but somehow he can't quite move. His feet feel rooted to the floor. 'I… it's us. We knew you'd come here we just…' Yugi paused, taking a small step backwards. The two strange creatures on the floor shift uneasily after him, as if afraid to get too far away. 'God, Joey I'm _sorry_, I didn't mean… this is a _really_ bad place right now, if we'd known it was going to get so bad a while ago we… we wouldn't have called and… look, don't be scared of them, okay? I… they won't hurt you; they won't hurt _anyone_, we've come all the way from the city, because we didn't know what else to do, and we knew if you came you'd arrive here so… so don't be mad? We never meant—'

'_Yug_,' Joey repeats his name, mostly for emphasis, but partly to get Yugi to shut up already.

'We thought we had need of you,' the other figure said, and now Yami stepped out of the darkness so Jounouchi could see him more clearly: the whites of his eyes almost as red as his irises. His presence makes the worlds seem strangely quiet. 'We see now we may have dragged you into a situation better best left alone, Joey. Forgive us…'

Joey opens his mouth to speak Yami's name, but Téa beats him to it, gasping and running straight towards Yuugi. The creatures hiss at her a little but Téa doesn't hesitate. She doesn't stop at all until her hands are wrapped around Yugi's neck and she's half sobbing into his shirt, clinging until he starts clinging back. 'Yugi you idiot you… you… damn it, you _idiot_! What the hell did you think would— we came, didn't we? You must've known we'd come, how could you ever doubt we'd come here, Yugi?!'

'I never doubted it… I always knew you'd come,' Yuugi murmured sadly, as if he thought that that was just the problem. Téa had detached herself from him by now, but only remained standing free for as long as it took her to wrap her arms just as tightly around Yami and continue the sobbing with renewed vigour. Yami's hands flit over her nervously. He's never quite sure how to deal with _touch_. Everyone else seems to see this as a reason to move forwards, almost ignoring the creatures between them as they head for Yugi. Honda throwing his arm around Yami's shoulder, Bakura patting Yugi timidly on the hand.

When Joey finally glances away, Seto Kaiba is standing behind them all with a rather large bundle in his arms –a bundle which is pushing to get down and muttering, saying something about not being a kid anymore. Joey barely takes the time to register that it's Mokuba. Kaiba lets his younger brother go and lets him stand on shaking feet, when he notices Yuugi. And then he steps forwards to, Mokuba clutched possessively at one side. The boy is still short, despite the ten extra years of growth. Joey should really ask if he's okay but he just can't take his eyes off Yugi and the creatures that're surrounding him. Something about Yugi feels cold and strange and very much like a bad dream.

But at least it's Yugi.

That's all Joey needs for now.

* * *

**12:43 am. **

He keeps one eye locked on the freaks at all times.

They came to Yugi when he called them and reached out his hand, though the others had shuddered. So far Kaiba has counted a total of six of the small, strange creature sthat he figures _used_ to be the locals. None of them get too close to Atem.

Atem.

For CEO Seto Kaiba, that name packs almost the same punch as "Frankenstein" might for a literary philosopher. The literal punch that comes with saying this name only serves to add to his annoyance. Even repeating Atem's name inside of his head sends chills right to the base of his spine, evoking times he can't remember and never wished to know about.

It's impossible to escape the memories around Atem –the memories he never truly had. Now as _this_ Kaiba in _this_ time, anyway. And as he sits there on the floor of the airport, with one arm around Mokuba and with those damn people muttering cautiously all around him, Kaiba finds his face drawn to Atem's. They gaze at each other firmly, and Yami's expression is tired and disturbed, but remains as firm and ascertained as ever, even with those _creatures_ so near by, virtually pecking at Yugi's coattails.

It's like communicating without words. Yami says: _You came. I'm surprised_ with the tilt of his head. And Kaiba's responding snort says _think nothing of it. Really. Don't. _Yugi, for the most part, seems oblivious to their silent conversation. He seems oblivious to most things, right now.

Kaiba is still astounded to find the pair of them alive – but he knows he probably shouldn't be. Atem would stay alive in a vacuum out of sheer damn stubbornness and there's no way Yugi's going to die anywhere without Atem.

And as Kaiba sits there, drinking in the sight and presence of the group of friends and the strange, rotting creatures, a startling truth arises in his mind.

They've been here before.

* * *

**12:53am. **

By the time Bakura has gotten to grips with everything which has just occurred (it had certainly been an eventful twenty minutes) everyone is sitting in the boarding gate foyer and trying to get to grips with the very same thing.

Bakura has never seen the inside of an airport during a black out. It's frankly a rather strange experience. Everything seems to echo so much more than it ever did during daylight – or maybe it's the silent emptiness which is creating that effect. Either way, it's rather peculiar.

'Airports,' he hears Tristan mutter. '…Figures, doesn't it?' and Bakura kind of understands what Tristan means by that, because it seems that every time their little group off to cause (or put a stop to) trouble, airports are in some way involved. Usually because they're heading off to some distant country with the weight of the world on their shoulders. Either that or they're coming back and the weight of the world has been lifted away. Whatever the case, Bakura figures, the airport is usually bad news for them. He wonders whether karma is affected in this particular circumstance, judging by the fact that the chaos had _already_ struck before they even _landed_ in Vienna…

…And now Bakura knowsthat his mind isjust avoiding cognitive thought. Trying to distract himself from what just happened.

What did happen, anyway?

Really, he has no idea whatsoever how or why they're still alive, but he knows it has something to do with--

'…Bakura,' Joey interrupts Bakura's thought patterns. 'I'm trying to tell Yugi here, but frankly I don't know myself… What the _hell_ did you do back there?'

Bakura opens his mouth, and then closes it again having reconsidered what he's about to say.

'It wasn't… me, Joey, I just… well, I guess I just channelled it.'

They look at him, eyes soft and concerned. Their earlier relief at their reunion seems to have faded back into nervousness, and they're all beginning to show how tired they are.

'What?' Joey frowns at him. 'C'mon, man. You nearly blew up half the airport.'

'Mm.'

'So… How… how'd you do that?'

'We saw it from the plane,' Mokuba exclaimed. 'Seriously, we were about a thousand feet up, heading for just three little light flashes, and the next thing I know, whoosh!'

'I don't _know_, Joey, and that's the honest truth. No more than Yugi understands.. .well, them,' he gestures vaguely at the creatures which still insist on following Yugi around, with their claws that can tear and teeth that can shred and eyes he can barely imagine were once human. They're wandering aimlessly around the back of the room, clambering up the walls like spiders and occasionally glancing in Yugi's direction, as if to check he hasn't left.

'We understand a little,' Yugi said softly, leaning deeper into Atem's side until their heads are practically touching. 'These ones… I think they're still human enough. As much as they can't stand the touch of its brightness, they still crave the light. Like Seto's torches, and the lights of car headlamps. Most of them panic on sight of it, but they're always drawn to destroy it.'

'Like moths around a candle,' Téa says, quietly.

'Exactly,' Yami answered.

'And this has to do with you… what exactly?' Bakura asks calmly. If seemed a fair enough question. After all, not long before Yugi came, all these creatures had been dead set on destroying them. Bakura still remembers the crushing power ripping through him and destroying so _many_ and realises he's not quite ready (or sure how) to explain it to them, yet. His heart and skull still ache from it, he realises, and he's going to have a headache in the morning. If they survive that long, that is.

The next moment of silence is long and choking. Téa's heels tap against the tiled floor. .

'It's… it's all about opposites, I think,' Mokuba says lifting his head and removing the rough gauze Kaiba has been making him hold there for half an hour. (And maybe it's a teeny bit embarrassing, Bakura thinks, that the sixteen year old amongst them is actually the first to work it out, but of course, Kaiba's are _supposed_ to be geniuses.)

'Hardly an appropriate analysis, don't you think?' Bakura blinks. 'What with light suggesting purity and all…'

'What exactly does that mean?' Yugi looks genuinely confused, but then he's looked generally _confused_ for a while now. Bakura figures that the Shadow Magic just _does_ that to him.

'Nothing, I'm… just saying I _saw_ that videotape along with the three of you.'

Tristan winces. 'Uh, Bakura, shut up.'

'…Oh, I'm sorry I wasn't aware it was a secret that we watc—'

'I said shut _up_, man, there're _ladies_ present here.'

'…I… well, alright, but still, my point is made, isn't it?'

'It's _made_, but it doesn't necessarily work that way, Bakura. Dark's not necessarily _evil_,' Mokuba shrugs as if that answer is obvious and his eyes flit in the still oddly-silent Yami's direction. Yami's eyes seem to close on impulse. 'So who says light is necessarily all _good_? No human being's like that. Magic and personality aren't necessarily interchangeable, you know.'

Joey grunts. 'You got that right. I mean I'd place bets that the Blue Eyes White Dragon is a total jerk for the other Monsters to have to share a deck with.'

'_Very_ funny, mutt.' Kaiba looks up and (for the first time in maybe over an hour), removes his hand from Mokuba's shoulder. 'So let's just say that's true… that these things are drawn towards the essence of light… and towards people who _contain_ whatever the hell chemical composites make up this so called "light magic" in their bodies… that would mean that just being _around_ you two—' his expression turns to Bakura and Yugi. Yugi doesn't notice. Bakura only shuffles a bit. '—Is like sitting around a baited bear trap. Unless of course you're planning on convincing the _other_ two-point-six million once-human freaks out there into doing what you tell them, Yugi.'

'…What?' Yugi blinks a few times and obviously doesn't recognize the sarcasm because he says: 'Oh… Um, no. No, I think I'm maxed out at six.'

Yami mutters something along the lines of "_maxed out at _one_, never mind six_", but Yugi doesn't seem to hear. Bakura considers waving a hand in front of Yugi's face for a few seconds and checking he's still capable of following movement, but since Yugi would probably get irritated if he did that, he decides against it.

'Still, that doesn't explain why they attacked _us,' _Mai points out. She's removed her boots and Bakura can see she had toenails painted the same colour as the trail of dried blood clinging to her calve – he's not certain if it's hers or not. 'I mean, if the rest of us are all a nice mix of the morally grey.'

'But it _does_ explain it,' Mokuba pointed out. 'I mean… we're normal, living human beings who've just happened to drop into a world that's turned completely dark –and somehow I don't think that's really gonna change at sunrise– most of us don't have a jot of magic, but we're still better than the darkness. And the only time they really congregate on us…'

'Is when the lights go up,' Kaiba finishes. 'And then they panic, and go mad and start trying to rip the source of that light into as many pieces as possible. It's not just instinct, then. It's because they fear us, the same way early man feared the lightning.'

'It wasn't me who did that,' Ryou says softly.

That gets everyone's attention and they all look at him. 'Earlier, I mean. Well… at least not alone, I don't think… the Other Me. _Yami_ Bakura, he… I felt him,' his hand grips the place at his neck where the ring used to lie. 'I don't know what he did exactly. He just found it inside of me, but… I was frightened, so he had to make me bring it out.'

Joey's face curls into a scowl. 'That blows, man, he didn't have to make you do anything you don't wanna do, haven't we been through this like a hundred times?'

'Nonetheless, Joey, it happened,' Bakura's tone is calm and soft and not at all frightened. He seems almost docile, even while knowing what he has unleashed. In knowing what he's capable of. 'I think, in some ways, he was necessary. I wouldn't have been able to do it without him.'

'S'why what we did before nearly didn't work,' Yugi says softly from his current position, leaning against Yami's shoulder. Bakura doesn't really get what he means by that, but Yami is frowning and avoiding Yuugi's gaze in a way that suggests _he_ does, and he really isn't happy about it. 'You can't see light without the darkness, right? And the stronger the light, the deeper the darkness. Yami…' he tilts his head a little to get a look at Yami's eyes. 'I needed _your_ power on top of mine, so they could see the difference and…' He blinks again. 'They're scared of you, Yami. That's why they're hiding, way over there. I drew them to us, and the power of your name is what's keeping them here.'

Bakura sees Yugi squeeze Yami's hand as he says that, interlacing their fingers together. 'Because you're the dark. The same stuff that made them. They just don't understand… They're frightened of the darkness, but I think they're still afraid of _me_, too. They can't deal with it.'

'That would seem to make sense,' Yami said, softly, even though Bakura feels it doesn't, somewhat. He's too tired to argue with them, right now.

Several pairs of eyes glance uneasily towards the other end of the boarding gate seating area. Bakura can still _feel_ them over there, creeping about the chairs and occasionally glancing in the humans' direction, but none of them come any closer no matter how much they might want to.

Joey shudders. 'Well, they still give _me_ the creeps no matter _where_ they are, man.'

'Don't forget: they're human Joey,' Yugi murmurs. 'They just got stuck like this. It's not their fault.'

'Yeah. They _were_ human,' Joey mutters. 'Looking at them now, though, it's hard to believe.'

'Will they come?' Kaiba asks, tersely. People look up at the question. 'If you call them, Yugi. Will they come to you? all of them, not just these few?'

'Um… I'm not sure, exactly. I think they'll keep _following_ us, and they won't hurt us. They're still human enough not to. Just… don't turn a torch on them or anything.'

'You hear that, big brother? No more big industrial lighting,' Mokuba smiles weakly, but Kaiba doesn't seem to appreciate the joke. Or Mokuba removing the cloth from his forehead. ('Hold it there or I'll glue it to you, Mokuba.')

'And if they knew they were human,' Kaiba mutters, leaning back against his chair. 'If they felt what they are now in comparison to what they used to be… in comparison with what they _were_ then. I wonder how quickly they would go insane enough not to care about anything anymore.'

There's probably some kind of warning in his voice, there, only Bakura can't quite make out what it is.

'And what exactly is that supposed to mean, oh great master of the freakin' skies?' Honda scowls.

'I mean we should keep an eye on them every damn second and never let them out of the way. Yuugi I don't know why those things do as you want them too but you'd better keep them doing it until we can work out how to fix this. You hear me? Keep them under control.'

'I'm not their master, Kaiba. They're still human.'

'They _were_ human,' Kaiba says bluntly. 'But they're not human now, are they?'

'Yes, and our objective is to find out why, before this whole mess gets any worse,' Yami avoids Kaiba's gaze choosing instead to direct his eyes towards Joey. 'You don't have to stay.'

'Be serious, man.'

'We are being serious Joey,' Yami went on sternly, in that voice he always used around duels. 'You came when we had need of you, and we're both grateful for that, but we fear our actions may have been too…' he hesitated, searching for the right word.

'Selfish,' Yuugi finishes for him. 'We don't want you guys to be hurt, that's all.'

'Yugi, I don't think…' whatever Téa "didn't think" was cut off before she could say it.

'No, Téa, listen to me –if you can leave then you should. We're going to stay and find out what happened here.'

'More freaks and monsters,' Kaiba snorted. 'I should've guessed. And here I could've sworn we had the military for this kind of thing.'

'N'what's that supposed to mean?' Joey muttered, annoyed.

'Exactly what it meant on the phone six hours ago, Wheeler. Not every end of the world catastrophe is something you personally have to deal with.'

'So what do you suggest we do, exactly, Kaiba?' Yami says dryly. 'Leave it to the experts? We're as close to experts as you can get.'

Yugi pats Yami's collarbone and smiles. 'That's more like the Yami I know.'

'…Has the Yami you know been absent in some way?' Yami frowns and Bakura can't tell if it's genuine confusion or casual mirth.

'Mm, only since the jeep crashed.'

'Since the jeep crashed?' Bakura asks softly, but nobody offers him an explanation.

'I'm glad,' Yami said, dryly, 'that my efforts at normalcy have not been lost on you, partner.'

'And I'm not glad that my efforts on getting you all here are going to be wasted just like that,' Kaiba muttered.

'You could always go home, Kaiba.' Everyone's gazes redirect to Téa in surprise. There's no accusation or anger in her tone. Just simple, quiet commentary. 'You don't want to be here, after all.' Téa says calmly, palms together in her lap. 'You got us out here, you brought us all back together again. But no one's asking you to stay. Sp just take the jet and get out of here. What's keeping you?'

Bakura feels the atmosphere tensing up and casts Kaiba a brief, annoyed glare.

Kaiba doesn't dignify her with a response, but none of them really expect him to anyway. He's leaning back in his chair like some kind of damn pharaoh and gives off the distinctive air of somebody they're stuck with for reasons none of them can explain.

And Joey kind of wonders why he just can't seem to be all that angry this one, small occasion.

A small smile tweaks over Mokuba's split lip.

Yeah. They're stuck with each other.

* * *

It's amazing how easily they board their flight, after that. Marik gets them through security easily, though as soon as they approach the runway, the Rod is back in his belt and is staying there – under direct orders from Ishizu who really is brooking no argument this time. By the time they're seated and belted up, the engines are already whirring to life.

Ishizu decides that he is enjoying this far too much.

'Should've really brought some peanuts.'

'Is now honestly the time for thinking about your stomach, Marik?'

'Ends of the world make me hungry, so what?' Marik allows himself a smirk as he placed his hands behind his head and waited casually for lift off. Odion is not nearly so relaxed – his hands remain clenched into tight, nervous fists. 'Perhaps it's related to having caused a couple, a gut reaction of sorts.'

Ishizu decides that if that's a joke, she may actually have to take the rod herself, before he gets them in any more trouble. She honestly can't believe all the rules they have broken in their attempt to get here. Why, if it weren't for the fact that the end of the world was virtually sitting on their doorstep…

The plane's engines seem to whir into life. Ishizu thinks about the frozen guards who should just be coming unstuck by now, and utters a silent prayer under her breath. if this fails, there is no way they're getting back into Cairo,

'Please attempt to cause as little trouble as possible, Marik.'

Marik leans back further in his chair, smiling a smile which does not reassure her in the slightest. 'I promise, big sister. Now, when do they actually take off here?'

* * *

**Reviews and concrit are appreciated. **


	11. Chapter 11

**So I looked at my old fanfiction list and I realised "you know what? This thing only has a few more chapters to go and you've left it unfinished for **_**two years**_** now. It doesn't look all that bad in terms of writing so you might as well finish it." **

**So yeah. That's why I'm here, imploring to your patience. Now obviously, it's been a very long time since this was updated so there will be a few resulting problems. Firstly, it's been a while since I used this precise style of writing in a fanfiction. And two, I have to remind myself entirely of the plot and remember how I planned to finish it (yes I did have a plan to finish it) in the first place. I'm going to soldier on as best I can.**

**I really appreciate that some people are still interested in this fic after such a long time, I'm also pleasantly surprised by my writing ability during that period, but now? I'm better. So I'll endeavour to see that it's finished for you. Thank you again. **

**-Scarab. **

* * *

**Vienna International Airport 12. 01:26 am **

'I've found it...' Kaiba lifts his head and jabs a finger at the map they have spread out on the floor before them. 'The Danube.'

Joey blinks. 'The what now?'

Yugi's eyes are widening. 'He means the River, Joey. You mean all of this is coming from there, Kaiba?'

'It would stand to reason.' Yami says carefully. 'Our estimates are that most of the shadow energy originated in that area, and it was definitely stronger at the motel –which is closer to the Danube – than it is here, Yugi.'

'So you're saying that all of this Shadow Magic is erupting from ... what? Some kind of gateway in the middle of the Danube?' Téa says, trying to ignore the monster edging closer to their backs, eager to reach out to Yugi and Bakura with their cold fingertips, still yearning for the light and fearing it in equal measures.

'And once it got here, there was no telling how far it could spread. The Danube is a direct source of drinking water. It provides for this whole region.' Kaiba says.

Yami nods. 'So once the Shadow Magic had infected immediate users of the river, direct body-to-body contamination became a lot easier. Dark magic spreads easier through hearts and minds than it does H2O.'

Kaiba snorts. 'Whatever you say. All I know is that this started at that river.'

'So that's where we have to go to finish it.' Yugi says as he satnds up, with, Téa thinks, far too much confidence and energy for someone with a sprained ankle and shadow magic pounding at his body – amongst other things.

'Um... Yeah. Yugi, about that. I'm not sure any of us should be going out there, least of all you After all, you just got out of a crashed car.'

'Actually there may not be a choice in that.' Yami says, and he doesn't sound a lot happier about it than Téa feels. 'Yugi and Bakura are the only people where who might have a chance at stropping all this.'

'Wait, wait, wait, go back a bit,' Joey waves his hands about in confusion. '_Purify_? What's that supposed to mean?'

'Well _purify_ is probably a bad choice of words,' Yami says evenly. 'A more accurate choice would be "Balance". Yugi and Bakura are the only sources of light magic remaining functioning in this part of the world. That means they're the only ones who can even out the discord between dark and light magic and return some sense of normalcy to this world.'

'What about all the people? I mean... like them,' Mokuba nods uneasily in the direction of the monsters still clinging to the edge of Yugi's light. And now, presumably, Bakura Ryou's too.

'I'm not sure what'll happen to them, I admit.' Yami says. 'But my guess is their fates won't be any worse than leaving them like this would be. We have to reach the Danube quickly –within a couple of hours at the most, or else this contamination is going to have spread too far for us to stop it'

Kaiba snorts.

'If it makes you feel better, Kaiba,' Bakura says, with just a hint of wryness. 'Then just think of it as... using an alkali to weaken an acidic substance. The principles are basically the same.'

'The question stands, then,' Tristan says. 'How the heck do we _get_ to the Danube?'

More to the point,' Téa adds. 'That river must be thousands of miles long, how are we ever going to know whereabouts in it the gate opened?'

'We'll have to rely on Yugi and Bakura for that,' Kaiba mutters. 'They should be able to pinpoint the source.'

'You're putting a lot of faith in this all of a sudden' Yugi mutters. 'Yami, I've never tracked down a source of light before.'

'Oh, don't worry about it.' Yami waves a hand in a way that would've been dismissive if it were anybody but Yugi he was waving at. 'It's easy, like riding a bike.'

'...Other Me, that analogy doesn't work.'

'Close enough, though. You'll know how to do it, the same way I know how to crush a psyche.'

'Hmph. Yeah, while this is obviously good usage of my deductive reasoning skills,' Kaiba mutters. 'I still happen to have a company to run –if no longer any European bases. So I'd like to get this over with as quickly as possible.'

Sure. _Quickly as possible_, Téa thinks dryly, remembering her ballet class that's supposed to be held in roughly two hours time, and the part time job she needs to attend... it feels strange to be thinking of such normal things at a time like this but... it helps somehow. Comforts her to think of a reality beyond this one. 'Then... then I guess we'd better get on with it,' she casts her eyes around the circle, grinning sleepily. '"All for one and one for all", right?'

'I... I don't know, guys, I think maybe most of you should stay here,' Bakura mumbles.

'Well tough luck there, man,' Joey reaches out and ruffles Bakura's hair. 'We're here now, and let's face it we're no safer here than anywhere else, right? We're coming with ya, whether you like it or not.'

'Have to agree with the ducklings on this one, guys,' Mai smirks faintly while jabbing a finger at Joey. 'This man can't do anything for himself without one of us there, you know.'

'Then it's settled,' Mokuba says brightly. 'We're all going.'

'Not you Mokuba,' Kaiba says, and before his brother can protest, he continues. 'You stay here and protect the plane. Should something go insanely wrong we w_i_ll actually want to get out of here in one piece. We can't do that if a bunch of monsters have wrecked the plane.'

'But Seto—'

'_Mokuba_.'

A pause. A shuffle. There was a time when Mokuba would've companied blue murder about this development, but now he's older, wiser, and a lot more beaten up than usual. He knows there are more important things than running into battle on an empty tank. '...Okay, fine. But you'd better bring them all back Big Brother. In one piece.'

'...Even Wheeler?' Seto manages the faintest of smirks. It's not his usual form, but it gets a smile from Mokuba, so Téa supposes that's alright

Kaiba glimpses at Marcus momentarily, and a silent message appears to pass between employer and employee. Something along the lines of: "_Take care of him or you're fired_". The body guard (his name is Marcus, right?) nods in agreement. Only a Kaiba Corp employee could possibly be standing in this kind of situation and not flinching at all, Téa thinks., and Kaiba addresses the group with the air of a man who is taking control, whether they want him to or not (and the look on Yami's face suggests that _he_ definitely doesn't want it). 'We'll have to take the rear entrance gate of the air port and travel around in that direction. We should find a car, break into it and use that to get us most of the way to the river. And for the record, Yami, no, you are _not_ going to be the one driving.'

'Hmph.'

Tristan scratches his head. 'Okay, cool. One question, though. What do we do with _those_ guys?'

Yugi glimpses at the three scared little monster creatures crouching behind the airport chairs. He sighs. 'They come with us.'

'Oh, okay... no, wait _what_?'

Yugi shrugs. 'They're attracted to me anyway. If you try and keep them away then they tend to get... violent.'

Yami is grinding his teeth so hard that Joey can hear his molars clicking. 'I suppose that's for the best. You—' (The creatures shuffle in response to Yami's voice.) 'Come _here_.'

More shuffling, uncertain stairs through not-quite-human eyes highlighted by torches. Aside from that, they don't move. 'I said come _here_.'

'Yami, they're not dogs,' Yugi sighs, and he kneels down on the floor, on their eye level. 'Come on, guys. Come with us. We're going to fix this now.'

There's a faint, unsure scattering amongst the monsters (people? Whatever) when Yugi reaches out to them, but when Yugi stands up, they take a tentative step towards him, as if torn between approaching and staying at a safe distance.

'Yugi, the living Bug Zapper,' Kaiba mutters, watching as the creatures hover around them at arm's length.

Téa tries very, very hard not to let that freak her out.

* * *

**Domino City Airport. 08:35 am**

Serenity is biting her nails.

She's rather annoyed with herself for this. It's a habit she developed while in the hospital, wrapped in bandages and bored out of her skull, and one she's been trying to get out of ever since. However, knowing that your

It was nice of Duke to come for her and drive her to the airport, even if it meant sharing a car with that... strange _not_-_Bakura_ person the whole time. He doesn't look like he's going to go away any time soon, so Serenity figures she'll just have to get used to it.

But really, that isn't what's bothering her. What's bothering her is that she still has no idea what happened to her brother, there are not, apparently, any flights going towards Europe (not that she shouldn't have already realised that) and quite frankly she has no idea how sitting around here amidst a throng of nervous, confused passengers is going to help. Every television screen which isn't showing a list of delayed and current flight plans is showing an image of a different news channel, and almost everyone is tuned into the events taking place at the Vienna border. Serenity is trying not to look.

'Well that's another dead end,' Serenity looks up at the sound of Duke's voice, while trying pointedly _not_ to look at the _other_ person walking along sides him, dressed in strange robes and with unkempt hair. 'They're really not letting us get out of here. There are no flights heading to the western hemisphere at all right now. Even my sponsors won't let me take out a jet. They say it's not covered by our _insurance_,' Duke snorts.

'Then... they're really all alone out there,' Serenity whispers.

'Hey don't worry about it, Red. This is your brother we're talkin' about, right? He's dealt with worse than a little European freak out, hasn't he?'

'I... I know.'

Duke pats her on the shoulder in a way that's clearly supposed to be encouraging. It doesn't much help. She'd known it deep down of course. She'd known there was no real way to get to her brother and her friends out there but still...

'Then don't stress out. We'll think of something. I'm gonna... I dunno grab us a coffee and check with the help desk again, okay. You.' He glares at Not-Bakura firmly for a long moment, and whatever he wants to say to him passes between them in nothing more than a look. Not-Bakura sneers as Duke walks away from them, leaving Not-Bakura alone with Serenity.

There is a long, cold moment of silence before he speaks. 'So, I remember you, don't I, little girl? You're the foolish mutt's kid sister. The one with the eyes, eh?'

Serenity shudders. 'My eyes are alright now.'

'Glad to hear it,' Not0-bakura says. Though he doesn't _sound _glad it at all. I'd hate for you not to be able to see the death that awaits you if we actually get out of this country. You realise, of course, that we would be running foolishly into a death trap.'

'I know that,' Serenity says uncertainly, moving from biting her nails to picking at the fabric of her seat.

Not-Bakura stares at her for what feels like forever, and then sits down heavily and uncaringly in the seat besides her. He glares at someone staring at him as they pass by and folds his arms behind his head, the very picture of nonchalance and arrogance.

Serenity is quite certain she doesn't _like_ this person one bit. But then, she supposes that she shouldn't. She knows all about what Not-Bakura did when he was still a part of the real Bakura's body. She knows what kind of person he was... what kind of _creature_...

'A-and what about you... Bakura?' Serenity asks, not even trying to guess at his real name. 'Why... why do you want to go out there?'

Not-Bakura's lip tweaks into a faint, strangely genuine smile. 'Let's just say that something belonging to me is currently following Yugi Motou around like a puppy, little mouse, and leave it at that shall we?'

Serenity doesn't dare to ask any more questions.

* * *

**Flight Bound for Heathrow International Airport, London. 2:00 am. **

There is not a great deal that can be said for in-flight entertainment. But given that currently, the airport's idea of entertainment is to broadcast the current events in Europe to everyone within earshot, Marik isn't surprised. The other passengers on the flight are

'_Ladies and gentlemen this is your captain speaking. As you may be aware we are experiencing some difficulties with our current flight plan. We encourage all passengers not to be concerned. Information on the situation in Europe is being provided as quickly as it becomes available and only recently has our schedule been diverted with the revelation that the UK's International Heathrow Airport is considered no longer safe for landing. As a result this plane shall be detouring to Washington DC, North America. Repeat, that is Washington DC, North America...' _

The anxious groan that goes through the cabin is practically tangible. Ishizu's head jerks up. 'Oh no, did he just say...'

'What you think he said? If what you think he said was that this flight is no longer going to the UK, then yeah, Big Sister, that's exactly what he said.' Marik curses under his breath. 'Damn. We should've expected this. Washington Dc is freaking hundreds of miles further away that England!'

'Then what do you suggest we do, master Marik?' Odion asks evenly with a voice that betrays not one ounce of his inner fears or turmoil.

Marik sighs, flopping back in his chair in defeat as the passengers message is barked out again in two different languages. 'Enjoy the ride? Hope we can land when we get wherever we're going to? And after all the trouble we went through to get on this flight in the first place.'

Ishizu says nothing to this. She merely stares dejectedly at the chair in front of her and rubs her fingers around her neck. She's probably staring to wish that _she_ had managed to sneak into the collapsing tomb as well...

* * *

**Vienna International Airport, Car Park C, 12. 01:44 am **

The monsters are everywhere.

For the most part she can't actually _see_ them, but she knows they're there. Téa can feel their very essence crawling in the skin on the back of her neck. It's hard for her to imagine that those creatures could ever have been human... that they might be human again, if they could only survive long enough to put all this to rights.

'You realise this counts as stealing, right?' she mutters, watching as Joey continues to mess around with the wires and cables he's torn out of the eight-seater jeep's control panel.

'Nah, this is just borrowin' it, I swear we'll put it right back when we're done.'

'What I want to know is how you know how to bypass a car's start up in the first place, Joey,' Yugi mutters, though he must already know the answer – Joey was a gang member once over, after all.

'I don't care how he does it so long as he hurries up,' Kaiba mutters, tapping the steering wheel impatiently and trying pointedly to ignore the fact that Joey is half on top of him trying to reroute the wiring.

'Heh, figures huh? The big fancy super genius corporation ownin' guy doesn't know how to hotwire a car.'

'What do you expect, mutt? _Stealing_ has never been on my agenda.

'Heh. Nah, not _now _t hasn't, but we all remembers the old days, Kaiba,' the car engine putters into life, and Joey flops back in the front passenger seat with a grin of triumph. 'Ha! There we go, guys. Savin' the world is all go.'

Téa shuffles in her seat 'Just so long as we don't run into any more of these things?'

'I don't think we have much choice there,' Yami mutters, and Téa is... okay, she's vaguely reassured by the fact that he's got his hand on her shoulder, but that could just be because there are four of them crammed into the back seat and there's nowhere else for him to put it.

The car pulls out of the darkened car park far too easily...

'Why's Kaiba the one who gets to drive anyway?' Tristan mutters. Then yelps as one of the monsters which is clinging to the car rooftop leans in through the window and gets just a bit too close for comfort.

It's going to be a long ride.

* * *

...They can smell it.

The light. It's stench is strong and burns through their skin easily, even from so far away. Some of them have already gone to it willingly. They can't stand it, and yet they can't look away from it either. The compulsion burns within them, awakening human instincts most of them did not even remember they had. At one point they had been human begins: wives, husbands, mothers, daughters, sons, children, shop assistants, tour guides, boat drivers... but all that remains of those identities now is the endless pull towards the light, away from the darkness that

A catch twenty two. Heir human selves draw them towards brightness while their new, inhuman instincts struggle to drag away from it.

And they know that they have two choices – either they go to it, or eventually, the light comes for them.

Their human instincts win out in the end. But only barely, and not for any good reasons.


	12. Chapter 12

**Here we go again... I find it quite surprising that I've been able to remember what the heck I was going to do with this, actually. Hope you like it. **

* * *

**Vienna Highway, en route to the Danube, 12. 02:14 am **

The good thing about adrenaline is that it tends to block out pain receptors. This is something Yugi is currently finding very useful.

They're going as fast as they can, given the state of the streets of Vienna right now. And Vienna had, from the looks of things, never been particularly big on road travel anyway. Half the main streets are blocked off and Joey has turned the map over so many times that Yugi's sure he doesn't have any idea where they're going.

'Right, it's a right here!'

'Mutt do you even know how to _read_ that map?'

'Don't take me for an idiot, it ain't my fault these squiggly lines all look the same, I know where I'm— Uh, no wait, wait, go back, we were supposed to take a left at... never mind.'

And then there are the monsters to deal with, because there was no way they were going to get out of the airport without using fog-lights and those very same lights are drawing the monsters too them more effectively than either Ryou or Yugi's light alone. They come from every corner, ever sewer, every patch of darkness they pass by, drawn to the shifting light of the moving vehicle and shifting in the light like ghosts.

Disturbingly solid ghosts that thud quite loudly when they hit the fender.

'Ah— Kaiba, be careful!'

'Do you want to get though this alive or not?' Kaiba snaps, turning the steering wheel and veering into as hard left. 'Enough with the back seat driving!'

'Aw, man, this is like something out of a videogame. Only worse. Only about a million times worse! At least in the videogames you don't have to worry about killin' the monsters! The whole _point_ is to kill the monsters!'

'Oh cool it, Tristan, you'd think you'd never been up against demons before!' Téa is clutching the overhead support in her attempt not to be sent flying through an open window.

'Not ones that've taken human form after bein' poisoned by shadow magic we haven't,' Joey snaps.

'Pipe down, Mutt! Yami, how far to the river?'

'Not far. I'm guess

'You call that not _far_?'

'In terms of magical energy displacement it isn't, there are some species that can teleport that distance!' Yami snaps.

Yugi groans impatiently. 'Guys seriously, this isn't the time for card game rivalries!'

Téa is... laughing. He doesn't think even she is entirely sure why. 'Oh, god I missed you guys... can't imagine _why_, but—'

'Save the speeches for later, Gardner!' Kaiba snaps, and that's the last thing he says before his expression changes from enraged to horrified, as one of the creatures on the hood of the vehicle blocks his view for just a few seconds too long and, for the second time so far today, Yugi finds himself being thrown clean off the road.

Looks like this is going to be even harder than they had anticipated.

* * *

**Flight Bound for Heathrow International Airport, London. 2:10 am. **

'My momma lives in that place.'

Odion feels a slightly chill race up his spine as he turns to face the small child sitting in the seat opposite. She can't me much older than five – the same age as master Marik was when he took on his duty as Tomb keeper. Too young. It takes him a moment to work out that it's him the girl is talking to.

'Oh?'

'Yeah, she moved after she and daddy decided not to stay together anymore. And I stayed with daddy.'

Odion has no idea what to say to that. If his master and mistress hear the conversation then they're paying it no heed, and frankly, Odion isn't used to interacting with children under any circumstance. Not normal children, anyhow. 'Do you think the black skies have hurt my momma?'

'I am sure your mother is fine.' It's a lie, but occasionally, the truth can be a painful thing. The girl's father hushes her, says something about not bothering the other passengers, and the girl falls silent, clutching the older man's arm in a virtual death grip.

Odion grits his teeth, clenches his fists, and tries not to think about children being dragged into a hell they don't deserve to face.

'There are too many people involved in this,' Marik mutters into his ear. 'It's like the end of the world all over again, Odion. The darkness keeps spreading, it won't stop.'

Only twenty thousand miles to Washington DC...

* * *

**Vienna Highway, 12. 02:19 am **

Another extremely useful thing about adrenaline –it means that Yami's shadow magic activates very, _very_ spontaneously. Fast enough for a wall of darkness to cushion them as their vehicle is tossed onto its side and judders against the pavement. Fast enough to prevent Téa's head from colliding hard against a broken window and to keep Bakura from being thrown right out of his chair.

Joey still ends up on top of Kaiba, but given the circumstances...

'Ngh. Mutt... I'm gonna give you about... three seconds to get _off_ of me.'

'Urgh, hey, man don't think I'm here by choice... everyone okay? Téa? Bakura? Yuge? Mai?'

'Think so,' Téa croaks after a moment.

'Urgh... Same here, hun,' Mai mutters. 'So much for my new hairstyle though... and I think I lost a damned heel.'

'Yes, I think I'm fine, thank you.'

'Nggh. Yeah, other me, I'm alright.'

'M'fine too, Joe, thanks fer askin'.'

'Aw, pipe down Tristan, you were farthest away from the bit of the car that hit the wall, weren't ya? I'm surwe you were cushioned by Mai's hair—' _THWAP!_ — 'Ow!'

Yugi takes a second to gather his bearings, suppress the pain in his spine, and look around. At some point, they'd lost one of the monster-people that had been clinging to the roof of the car. The other two are now limping away from the wall, limbs twisted at even more precarious angles than they had been before. They stumble about searching blindly, crashing into each other and keening as they feel their way back to the light. They find Bakura first, and Yugi sees the boy repressing a shudder as they reach out to touch his hair, still torn between pulling away as they do so. Living Bug Zapper. _Right_.

'A-ah, um... uh... g-good shadow people. B-behave now.'

'As my partner recently reminded me, Bakura, they aren't pets,' Yami sounds vaguely amused as he helps Yugi to his feet and turns to offer aid to Téa. Téa, however, appears to ignore his outstretched hand for one long moment. 'Téa? Are you alright?'

'I... yes but, Yami, look.'

She's still gazing at the monsters. And now so is everybody else, and... The monsters aren't behaving _normally_. Not that Normal is exactly the first word you'd come up with to describe them anyway. There're... fumbling, staggering, pushing against the walls in the manner of someone finding their way by touch alone, rubbing at their faces, and making small, painful, keening sounds that it hurts to hear.

'Man, what's with those things?' Joey asks.

You mean asides from the obvious? Kaiba snorts.

'Actually _yeah_, Kaiba, asides from the obvious,' Joey mutters, and something in his tone of voice makes Kaiba look up and pay attention for once. 'What's with them? It's like they dunno where we are.'

'I think they're blind, or something,' Téa whispers nervously, and Yugi is struck by how true that is.

'They probably are, now,' Yami says softly. 'The darkness transforming them has already destroyed half their senses; the ones it deems useless like taste, and touch. All they can feel now is light, and the absence of it.

It's a pitiful sight. The creatures fumble in the darkness, seeming barely human at all now in their reactions and behaviour. Almost all the signs of their former sentience have gone. Yugi shivers. '_It's not fair... They didn't deserve this. Nobody in this place deserved it.'_

'I don't get it,' Tristan mutters, wiping a spot of blood from his chin. 'I mean... why did they come to Yugi anyway? Why just these few and not all the others? The rest of em' still seem hell bent on trying to destroy us.'

'Well,' Yami coughs. A meaningful cough, the kind that says "I'm about to tell you something you won't like". 'Actually, so would these ones have been before, if Yugi hadn't acted as he did.' Yugi and Yami exchange a glance, and now their eyes are met by the eyes of everybody else.

'Uh, yeah, care to explain that, hun?' Mai asks.

'Well... I guess I kind of held them here,' Yugi said, softly, now gazing at the fumbling creatures again. 'I used Yami's real name. Once they'd heard it they were bound to it, the same way they'd be bound by shadow magic.'

Kaiba glares. 'For them I bet that's like being bound to a red hot stove. You could kill them, just by being too close you know. '

'They were going to kill_ us_ Kaiba,' Yami snaps. 'We didn't have any choice.'

'You could have destroyed them when you had the chance. That was an option. It would've been less painful for them than this.'

Another brief, exchanged glimpse.

'Why Kaiba,' Mai says in a voice dripping with sarcasm (her mood apparently made none the better by the blood on her face. 'I wasn't aware that you'd taken up growing a conscience in your spare time.'

'Oh for goodness sakes,' Téa snaps impatiently, and her voice has the same affect it always has on them – that of forcing everyone into a dull, anxious silence. 'his isn't the time for that you guys. Look if we can still get to the river then... then everything will be alright. We can help... them. We can fix the darkness, can't we, Yami?'

She's looking at Yami with such a firm, unyielding expression that saying no to her would be like telling a child he couldn't have a new bike for Christmas. In truth he doesn't know how likely their actions are to fix all of this. It might just leave all of Europe a wasteland filled with the bodies of the dead. He doesn't even know how they're going to fix the problem when they get there. Somehow he has a feeling they won't be able to duel it into submission, and _light_ powers are Yugi's department. '...of course. Téa's right, there's still a chance.'

The thought seems to cheer them, if only for a second... and then a chill sweeps through the air like a breath of cold wind, even though the air is calm. Yugi shivers, sensing what is coming before anybody else does. Except for Bakura, who is now looking at Yugi with a scared expression.

'Uh, yeah I hate to rain on the self confidence parade...' Mai coughs. 'But...'

Whatever Mai's "but" was going to be, nobody needed to find out, because the next minute was when an almost-human hand half the side of a wall clambers over the top of the nearest building, screeching fit to wake the dead. Which, he supposes, is exactly what it's doing.

* * *

**Domino City Airport, 09:15 am **

'When I was very little, I got lost in a park' Serenity says quietly.

'Really? How terrible for you,' Not-Bakura mutters dryly.

'Well actually yes... at the time, it was very frightening. It was called Marbre Park: it wasn't the kind of park with swings or seesaws, but the woodland kind, with picnic tables and dark tunnels through the trees. I used to love going there all the time before mom and dad got divorced. When we were still a family.'

Silence. Well, that's better than another retort she supposes.

'I had really wanted to go that day, and the park wasn't far from my aunt's house so off I went. I was so silly... Of course the park doesn't seem nearly so big now, but at the time I was very small. I was out there for hours, and it was getting dark. I hated the dark...'

'So you should.'

'I-If you say so.' Serenity scowls. This conversation isn't going the way she'd hoped, but then, she hadn't expected much else from Bakura's other-self. She wishes Duke would hurry up and get back with the coffee (even though she doesn't especially like coffee, she hadn't the heart to say so). And then she smiles faintly as she remembers. '...And then Joey came and found me.

Yeah, I here it's a real weakness of the breed of older brothers, Not-Bakura rolls his eyes again, but Serenity is resolute. He's going to hear this, whether he takes it seriously or not.

'That's just it. Joey wasn't even living with us at the time. He was living three cities away, back in Domino. But sooner or later mom must've had to call my dad and tell him I was missing, and of course Joey found out. He was only seven years old, but he must've taken money from dad's wallet or something. He took two buses all the way to Marbre Park to look for me. He was the one who found me. He says...' she pauses frowning. 'It'll sound strange, but he says he felt his way to me. He could sense me in the woodland and the trees in a way nobody else could. He found me.'

There's a long moment of silence. 'And I suppose you're going somewhere with this little foray into your memories, hm?'

'Yes,' Serenity says, drawing herself upright. 'Because this is the same thing. 'Because that's what I'm doing right now, I think... I can feel him, even though he's so far away. If I believe we can find him, then we will.'

'Really?' Not-Bakura doesn't look convinced... but he doesn't look entirely sceptical either. Serenity prides herself on being able to read people quite well. Even evil spirits from other worlds. And then he sniggers. 'If you say so, Mouse. But neither of our _special ones_ are stuck in a perfectly harmless human park in the middle of some boring woodland now, are they, hm? More like the middle of hell on earth.'

'It doesn't matter,' Serenity says, 'Wherever they are the principle is still the same. I'm sure you understand that better than you think you do, Bakura.'

Not-Bakura opens his mouth as if to say something, but shuts it again when he sees Duke stumbling back to them through the crowds of people with coffee cups grasped in both hands.

Serenity believes in her brother. She grabs hold of that thought and clings to it tightly with both hands. They'll find him. She's certain they will.

* * *

**Vienna Highway. 02:20 am **

'Oh-kay, that's uh... kinda...'

'Humongous? Gigantic? Massive beyond conceivable belief? Zork sized?'

'I was going to say it's fucking huge, but your way works too.' Mai snaps.

Huge is the right word. It looks kind of like what would happen if you took about a thousand of these one-time human freaks and merged them into one.

'Guess we didn't take into account a few things.' Yami mutters. He's looking up at the thing with as close to calm as he ever gets, watching as it shrieks and stumbles and clambers over the building, smashing the rock beneath its pearly white fists which don't look as if they should even resemble hands. Its eyes burn empty in its head, its face stretched out in disturbing angles. The creatures gathered around Yugi shriek and panic, sensing its presence.

'T-take into account a few things? Like what?!' Téa wails.

'Like the fact that there's a zoo somewhere around here. I imagine that thing used to be an elephant.'

This probably would've been a lot funnier if that creature hadn't looked so capable of goring them to death with one sweep, and if it hadn't been clambering over buildings like a spider, smashing everything in its path and shrieking in a way that sounds like a shadow demon gone horribly, horribly wrong. The looks Yami gets are rivalled only by the ones the monster did. 'You've got to be kidding me?' Mai snaps. 'Yami, you're telling me that... that _thing's_ a mutant pachyderm?!'

'Unless there's some other creature in Vienna that could conceivably look like that and be that big after being infected with shadow magic, then yes.' He sounds calm, but the hand he has still gripping Yugi's says otherwise.

'Great. Just great,' Kaiba mutters. 'We need to get away from that thing. I don't think its intelligence is too hampered by this.'

'In other words, let's get the hell out of here!' Bakura snaps, in an uncharacteristic display of explicit that probably would have stunned them all into silence had they not had bigger things to worry about right now.

They turn and run.

* * *

_**NB: I don't know if you'll find this interesting, but "Marbre" is French for "Marble" – as the Genius that is Scribbler taught me, It fits to have places surrounding domino also named after toys.**_


	13. Chapter 13

_**I have only one thing to say, and that is that I have got to stop swearing in my fanfictions. It highlights a lack of sufficient adjectives, it up's the rating when it otherwise isn't necessary, and it makes it look crude. So... you know, lemme know if you catch me swearing in this. It can be my New Year's Resolution to cut down.**_

* * *

"_Death is terrifying because it is so ordinary. It happens all the time.__" _

– Susam Cheever.

Chapter Thirteen.

Vienna. 02:25 am

Joey had had to run away from a giant bolder once. Just like you saw in that _Dr. Jones and the Crystal Temple_ movie. It had been one of Pegasus's kooky tricks when they visited his island for the Duellist Kingdom tourney. They'd been stuck underground someplace, and a giant _rock_ had started rolling down a tunnel after them. Course that bolder had turned out to be inflatable, and they could all look back upon that day and laugh about it now because it was really kind of funny.

If he could compare this to anything then it would be that moment. Except without the funny.

Unfortunately, it turns out that one of the most notable things the elephant had lost during its mutation via shadow magic is the characteristic slow speed of your average pachyderm. As well as the associated lumbering lack of mobility. The creature _charges_ rather than runs, and the noise that follows is like something torn out of a well dreamed up in a nightmare. Joey keeps glimpsing every which way, trying to catch sight of where his friends are in the darkness. And then there are the _monsters_; _Yugi's_ monsters, shifting through the alleyways as if they're skipping time itself to keep up with the Light of Yugi's presence.

Not that they have to try hard. Yugi really isn't going fast enough. None of them are going fast enough.

Kaiba, maybe he's managing it, and damn it, how can he open his mouth and talk straight when Joey can barely catch his breath. 'Wheeler! We need to split up, give it more than one target to follow!'

You... _kidding_ me? Joey gasps. 'That's like the first... rule of the... movies, dude, you never split the party!'

'This isn't a movie!' Kaiba snaps. 'Yugi and Yami need to get to that river!'

'H-hate... to admit it... but he's got...a point,' Tristan wheezes, staggering down the staircase, trying to ignore the crumbling of the rocks not so far behind them. 'I mean... s'what we do best, right...? Distraction...'

'Have you not... been...watching this?' Joey snaps, shoving open a wooden gateway so they could charge through it and _damn_ it, nobody ever listens to him. 'If we split... it'll just... go for them anyway, it wants... the light!'

Either method seems equally useless. They can't lead it away from Yugi because the monster will be drawn to him like a magnet and utterly ignore them. And they can't stay together because they're dragging one another back, forcing each other to slow down.

They can't get away from it, but there's nothing else they can do, and so they keep running, until they've pulled away from the main roads and are racing through the zigzagging backstreets of the city, weaving in and out of one another like a maze. They have absolutely no idea if they're headed in the direction of the river. (_Then again, if that _thing_ catches up with us, we won't have to worry about that anymore anyway.) _Whatever this creature had once been, now it was something other worldly and terrible, and much, _much_ faster than even a human who was at full strength.

Nobody is running at full strength. They're tired and hungry and lost in a world of pain and darkness messing with their heads. They can't go any faster than they're going. They can't run away...

And they're probably going to die here.

'Bakura, no!'

Joey only notices that Bakura has tripped when he hears Yugi screaming his name and realises that Téa has stopped running and is turning back the way they came. He curses and joins her instantly, along with Tristan, and then it's Kaiba who's screaming at them to hurry up. There's shifting movement as the buildings shudder and crack all around them, forced aside by the monster's great bulk.

By the time Joey's close enough, there's already a chain reaction in effect. Yugi is throwing himself in front of Bakura, and Yami is doing exactly the same thing with Yugi, wrapping his body around him in a living shield. The monster is smashing through the nearest buildings, raining down debris, and a giant tusk is rising up before them, slicing through stone and steel like paper.

It misses Bakura. It misses Yugi and Yami. It _hits_ Tristan and sends him slamming into a nearby wall. Then Téa is screaming again, and Joey knows that whatever happens he is never _ever_ going to look back upon this moment and laugh.

There's panic from the other monsters as the walls crumple around them and Téa narrowly avoids being smashed into the ground by a lump of falling concrete. Joey tries to move forwards to where Tristan is, but his legs have turned to cold jelly and won't move. There's Kaiba running forwards, shoving him aside as he charges over to where Yami is for god only knows what reason.

And then the monsters—Yugi's monsters are suddenly _there _again, diving forwards and ripping into the creature in front of them with cries that Joey can almost believe are determined yells as they rush between Yugi and Yami and the monster fifty times bigger than any of them. Joey watches as the three bodies of one-time human beings are thrown aside, and hears the sickening crunch of bone against stone.

Then Yugi screams as well. Not in fear or panic; in _anger_. The skin of his hands glistens and explodes outwards, as if somebody set fire to his body. Yami is repelled like the matching pole of a magnet.

And then... well, for a few brief moments, everything goes to hell in a hand basket. There is nothing but the light swelling and the sound of monsters screaming at the dark. And amidst all that somewhere is Yami, calling out for Yugi. Then the world shuts down on him and everything disappears.

* * *

'...J-Joey? Hey, Joey, snap out of it, are you alright? Joey!'

'Gurh...' Joey says. And at first that's as much a response as he's willing to give. He doesn't open his eyes, because even though it _sounds_ like Mai who's talking to him, the last thing he wants to see is that warped-out pachyderm again and _man_, he is never going to visit a zoo again for as long as he lives.

'Joey, wake up already!' And _that_ sounds just like Téa. 'You're starting to freak us out!'

'Yeugh... I don't wanna wake up.' Joey blinks reluctantly and the world comes slowly back into focus. 'Wakin' up hurts.'

'Oh consider yourself _lucky_, man,' croaks a voice that sounds like Tristan from somewhere to his left. 'Least you didn't get t-thrown into a wall... Everyone here? Ryou?'

'Mmf. Y-yes. Just give me a moment to process the fact that we were almost killed by a mutated elephant. I'll be fine...'

'Yeah, right. There's another one to add to the scrap book.' Joey sits up, realising this is a mistake but he figures it's too late to lie back down again anyway. '_Urgh_. Somebody wanna explain to me why I feel like I'm just had one too many turns on the Kaibaland Blue Eyes Rollercoaster before tryin' to remove my own brain with a popsicle stick?'

Mai rolls her eyes, but he can see through that. He can see that she was worried sick, and he's woken up to way worse sights in the past than _that_ beautiful face glaring at him (glaring, smiling, laughing, it doesn't really matter, it's still beautiful), so he figures he can deal. 'Thanks for that charming visual, honey, _just_ what I needed to complete my evening.'

'Hey, you know my visuals add to the flavour of the moment... Wheat happened to the freak?'

'You mean Jumbo the Terrible?' Mai bites her lip nervously. 'It just... it's gone. Yugi set the light on it, and it sort of... disintegrated,'

Joey blinks. 'The whole thing?'

'The whole thing. Guess the little guy was just that _mad_. Or maybe his power reacted with Bakura's power and...' Mai shudders and waves her hand about in a gesture saying that she really doesn't know, and doesn't care. All that matters is that it's gone now.

Joey swallows. 'Yugi?'

'Right here.' A voice says. Except that it's Yami's voice, not Yugi's, and that's bad, because Joey knows there's trouble whenever Yami feels the need to speak for is other half.

Joey turns around.

The last time Joey saw that kind of look on Yugi's face, all wide eyed and closed off, had been during Duellist Kingdom. And the look hadn't boded well there, either. He looks at Tristan; there's blood trickling down the side of his face, but he doesn't seem to notice it until Téa reaches out with a tissue. The light is still crawling across Yugi's fingertips, but it's fading away steadily under Yami's hold, his shadows slowly balancing out the brightness. Yugi is staring at the place where Joey knows a monster used to be. The same spot is now occupied by Kaiba, who is crouching over something...

Correction. Over some_one_.

* * *

**01:13am, Boeing 737 direct flight to Gatwick International Airport, London. One hour since departure.**

'_Good morning ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking once again, I am sorry to announce that we continue to receive no word on events taking place within central Europe at this time. This flight will proceed on to New York as scheduled and once there you will be able to gain further information concerning your passage home. I apologise once again, this is a very difficult time for us all...' _

Flying, Ishizu decides, is not her favourite form of transportation.

Particularly not on board a public service, during a rather panicked period when nobody is entirely certain what the world will look like once they all arrive. The entire plane is coated with an aura of gloom and uncertainty, and the atmosphere is getting to her brothers. Odion copes with this by closing his eyes and meditating in a way which emulates sleep enough for him to avoid speaking to any of the cabin crew when they ask him if he'd like any refreshment. Marik copes by... fidgeting.

A lot.

'Marik, are you alright?'

The jolt through his shoulders when she speaks to him tells her in advance that his answer will be a lie. 'Of course, sister. Why wouldn't I be?'

'Given our current situation there are many reasons.' Ishizu says, and Marik sighs, hand creeping closer to the Millennium Rod, as if out of instinct. 'Not least of which being the fact that you got us on this flight via magical manipulation using a Millennium Item.'

'You are never going to let me forget that, are you?' Marik sighs. 'It's nothing. Just... all the darkness in the air, Ishizu. All the darkness of people's thoughts and minds... it's probably getting to me a little. Something is wrong, and I think for the first time in many years, _everyone_ in the world is aware of it.'

Yes, that is understandable. This is no ordinary flight, and there is not a single passenger on board this plane who doesn't know it. Ishizu has taken note of how many seats are empty which should not be.

'You chose this flight for a reason, didn't you, big sister?' Mari k said, eventually. 'Tell me, do you sense something?'

'The Necklace has no power for me now,' Ishizu admitted quietly. Truthfully it hadn't for years. Not since that day in the temple when the Pharaoh Atemu had turned his back on the land of the dead.

'Ah ah, but the powers o the Millennium Items don't wear off so quickly, sister,' Marik smirked 'you're aware of _something_, aren't you? That's why you're letting us go to England, even when we can't reach Italy.'

Ishizu took a breath. 'It's... possible. We may not be heading directly into the heart of the danger, but we are heading into something, brother,' Ishizu attempts to settle in her chair. 'I am sure of it.'

The small child in the next seat over threw a lollipop directly into Odion's lap and grinned at him. Odion sniffed slightly, but otherwise maintained his meditative state, and Marik chuckled lightly, breaking the gloom for just a fraction of a second to hand the candy back to her.

* * *

Vienna. 02:45 am

'_Wer...wer sin...__ Wer sind Sie__?'_

...One of the monster's isn't dead yet.

This is kind of scary, but not entirely unexpected, now that Joey thinks about it. Those creatures just don't seem to _die_, unless Bakura or Yugi set the light on them; and then they burn out like moths in candlelight. They burn out just like that giant freak must have done, because otherwise, Joey can't explain where it went/ Otherwise, they're impossible to stop. Break off their limbs? Who cares? They'll keep coming. Rip them to shreds? Still _nothing_ stops them moving.

Still... maybe that doesn't mean they shouldn't be able to _die_ eventually.

What _is_ unexpected is the talking, and the fact that now this one is opening its eyes (if they still count as eyes) wide and bright and glaring _right_ at Kaiba, like a bug trapped in the headlights, and otherwise, it is lying very, very still. It has one _handnothand_ reaching up and gripping Kaiba's sleeve tighter than any human should be able to. Kaiba knows it isn't not dead.

The crunched up monster is _speaking_ to Kaiba. In a voice all broken up and falling apart, just like the rest of its body, but... it's still _talking_.

'_...Ein... Ein fru-uuuu-end?' _

Kaiba's eyes narrow into a scowl. '…_Ja_.'

There is silence for a moment as Joey processed and realizes he has no idea what Kaiba just said. The creature's jaw is coming away from it's skull, and it's a wonder it can even form the words and yet somehow it manages to. Like it knows this is the last chance it's going to have to talk. _'…__Ma...man hat mich beraubt__? ' _

'…_Nein. I..._' Kaba hesitates.

He _actually_ hesitates, and Joey blinks, stepping down from the doorframe. 'W-wait, Kaiba you can _speak_ that?'

'A little. She's only speaking German,' Kaiba says blankly and Joey frowns just a little when Kaiba doesn't add his usual "you idiot" on the end. He cuts off when a clawed hand reaches out to him, the creature's fingers curling tightly, but not dangerously, around his arm.

'She… she's a _she_?' Joey feels his insides quiver. Because now he remembers. They're human, aren't they? Or else they _used_ to be.

Oh, god.

'She's a she.' Kaiba nods in confirmation. Then he's speaking German again, all the while locked in the pure, white stare of an almost-but-not-quite-human-being lying on the dirt. Joey feels Téa's hand grip his bicep, as she's hanging onto him and shaking. Kaiba doesn't flinch. No, Joey's not even that sure he's _breathing_.

'_I-Isidor… Wo ist... Isidor?'_

'_Isidor?' _

The creature breaths thickly, as if its lungs (or whatever remains of them) are filled with fluid. Joey can see its bones cracking and breaking into pieces even as it lies there... and is it just his imagination, or did that split-wide, lipless face of hers just split wider into a smile?

'_I-Isidor... Is... Wo ist er_? Wo ist… _vas ist lohs, _Ich habe ... verpaßt...'

Kaiba shakes his head slightly. _'__Es tut mir leid__ . Ich spreche sehr wenig Deuts__ch. __Könnten Sie das bitte wiederholen?' _

'_Isidor...' _The face-not-face of the woman twisted somewhat, into an almost frown. '_Mien... __er ist mein ehemann__.. __Wir... wir... Meinehemann, mein... waren letzte Woche geheiratet__.' _

Kaiba doesn't answer. His free hand is sort of… hovering around his arm, as if considering removing her hand. He doesn't, though. He lets her keep a tight hold on him. And okay, now Joey's brain is doing back flips, because how in the hell can this thing –this _woman_– be…

He can't help but look the figure over one more time. This strange, broken and mangled body, with one hand clutching Seto Kaiba –of all people's– coat, like he's a lifeline. Maybe he is. There's not much blood left in her. Can't be. He's not even all that sure she still had blood to begin with.

'What? Man, I have no idea what you're saying, I… Someone gimme a translation here?'

'She's on her honeymoon,' Kaiba says. For once, his tone has absolutely no aloofness to it whatsoever, and Joey feels the temperature around him drop just a little. Which kind of explains Téa's shivering, and Yugi...

Yugi hasn't moved an inch from where he's sitting, clutching tightly to Yami's arm. 'Isidor…' he whispers quietly.

The figure's body seems to crackle, like her bones are splintering from the inside. She's crying. No, not crying – bleeding. She _does_ have blood, but it's pure white in colour and it's pouring out of her eyes. '…Ich habe... I..., wo jeder ist, wo... Es war ein Junge... wer...ist er sich sicher?' The eyes widened slightly, suddenly even more intensely afraid than before. '_Einen junge, ainen... Wer ist Isidor?_'

Kaiba… he looks like he's lost for words in any language. He's biting down on his bottom lip. Strange. His eyes are as cold and hard as ever but that _lip_… that's what's distracting. Joey can't look away from it. He's never seen Kaiba do that. Never seen him so nervous. _'…__Wie heißt du__?'_

'_Mich…?' _she laughs. At least, Joey thinks it's supposed to be a laugh. It sounds so _strange_. Like a gurgling tap._'Mich... Mien nam ist Samantha… __Samantha Rilando. Nein. Nein, Samantha __Bäcker__.__ Wie heißt du__?' _

'…Saman-ta?' Joey knows that's a name, even though he doesn't know _how_ he knows. The creature –woman, Joey reminds himself again– coughs, and the whiteness that was previously light pours from her mouth now, as well as her eyes. Téa is clutching him tighter but Kaiba still doesn't flinch one bit.

'…_S...sie sind chinesisch__? __Ihr... ihr Akzent__.' _

'…_Nein.__Ich bin aus Japan__.' _

'_Ein junge…'_

'Ist sicher. Bleiben noch. Hilfe kommt.'

And that's the last thing Kaiba says for a couple of moments. Joey doesn't get a _word_ of it, but somehow he still knows that at least part of it was a lie.

Kaiba is lying to a monster so that it can die a little easily.

A sick feeling curdles in Joey's stomach, because the thing is _smiling_ again. Its eyes aren't bleeding anymore and as Joey watches, he can see its flesh crumbling. Destroyed, Joey realises, by nothing more than Yugi's touch. It was probably already dying when it got to them in the other chamber, before they separated. Yugi's touch was like poison to them, a poison they all wanted and hated in equal measures.

'_Ah. Gut_…Sie sind gutig.'

And then her smile is breaking up, right across her face. Her bones have turned to dust, and then the rest of her face crumbles away, along with the arm that was clutching Kaiba's sleeve and the shoulder, chest and body attached to that arm. She sinks like fluid into the dirt. Kaiba brushes the dust away without a thought, but the weird thing is, he doesn't look the slightest bit disgusted.

Téa lets out a breath. She must've been holding it, because now she's gasping and trying to catch it again.

'Hilfe kommt,' Joey repeats the words. It's the softest, quietest, _calmest_ thing that he's ever heard Seto Kaiba say.

Shame he doesn't understand a word of it.

'Yugi?' it's Téa who speaks next, her voice breaking the sullen silence. Silence, that is, unless you count the noises of the shadows all around them. Yugi is sat quite still, with Yam's arms wrapped around his shoulders; touching their foreheads together and whispering in Yugi's ear, words in another, ancient language. Joey knows that even if he were close enough to hear them, he wouldn't understand a word Yami is saying. He turns away and tries not to be embarrassed, because he knows somehow that this isn't the kind of moment that anyone outside should be watching.

Kaiba stands himself upright and absently brushes dust from his sleeve. 'Yugi, get a grip. That wasn't the first one to die and it probably won't be the last.'

B_ut it was one of the first that got itself killed for him,_ Joey thinks. Because that was what that was, wasn't it? Whatever was left of that woman's spirit had tried to _help_ them... She had tried to protect Yugi.

_...Why_?

'She... she's dead, isn't she?' Bakura whispers, even though the comment seems unnecessary. They all _know_ she's dead. And the look in his eyes is deep and haunted, and Joey remembers back on the airport runway, Bakura raising his hands to the sky and killing dozens of those creatures all in one fell swoop. And now to hear one speaking with a human voice and human words... 'I never thought. I didn't—'

'S'okay.' Bakura,' Tristan muttered. 'It really is. You couldn't help it.'

'I _did_ that, I...'

'_No_, you didn't. That was Yami Bakura's doing and you know it,' Tristan hisses, pulling the handkerchief away from his forehead and reaching out to grip Bakura's arm, _making_ him look up.

'But there were dozens of them. _Hundreds_—'

'Bakura, _relax_.'

And somehow or other Bakura does. He takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. Joey turns his attention back to Yugi. Yami has pulled away now and Yugi is nodding slightly, as if in response to whatever Yami just said.

It's only now that Joey notices. Kaiba's clothes are wet and dripping back water. As if the women had dissolved into a liquid when she fell apart and _ew, that's just gross_, but Kaiba doesn't seem to care too much about it. And as they watch, the water falls from his fingers and hits the ground. 'Look.' Kaiba says, nodding as the single trickle of black water slowly spreads across the pavement... then it turns and begins slipping away into the darkness.

When he listens, Joey can hear the faint rush of water.

'That... that noise—'

'Is the sound of a river.' Kaiba says, watching as the black pearl of liquid continues to rush across the paving stones in the direction of the sound. That must be it, Joey thinks, feeling the pounding in his chest lessen for a moment, then start up again even stronger than before. They're nearly there.

Kaiba whirls around to face the company. 'You can have your emotional outburst later,' he says dryly. 'For now we still have a task to complete, so pull yourselves together and let's get on with it. _Yugi_, we need you to focus now.'

Yami stops muttering and pulls away. He's glaring daggers in Kaiba's direction, but Yugi just whispers something and gently pushes Yami away. 'Y-yeah.' He lets out a shaking breath and staggers to his feet, one leg curling slightly underneath him. He only stays upright because Yami is stood beside him acting as support. 'It's just...Kaiba, how do you say _thank you,_ in German?'

Kaiba stares at him for a few moments longer. '_Danke_.'

'Right...' Yugi looks back at the place where the _monstercreatureSamantha_ had been a moment earlier. 'Danke, Samantha.'


	14. Chapter 14

**You know at some point I started thinking about Atlantis, and realising how the Orichalcos arc tied into this fic in a way I hadn't imagined in the first place. I mean, people in a world associated with water, turning into monsters? Strange... **

Ah well. Standard disclaimers apply.

* * *

"_Thirty minutes the blink of an eye  
Thirty minutes to alter our lives  
Thirty minutes to make up my mind  
Thirty minutes to finally decide  
Thirty minutes to whisper your name  
Thirty minutes to shoulder the blame  
Thirty minutes of bliss, Thirty lies  
Thirty minutes to finally decide."_

- tATu, Thirty Minutes.

**Chapter Fourteen.**

**Vienna. 03:00 am **

'You pulled a real stunt back there, you know, Wheeler.' Kaiba says, and it's only now that Joey realises the two of them have fallen behind. Bakura, Yugi and Yami are basically leading the party now, guiding them through streets they've never even seen before, following the darkness towards the river. Téa and Mai are right behind them, sticking close together and apparently displaying this united sense of _Girl Power_ or something , even if Mai keeps looking back at him to check where he is, the way she does when she's trying to be independent and dependable at the same time. Then there's Tristan, and then Kaiba. Who is walking alongside Joey. And showing no obvious signs of wanting to walk faster to get _away_ from Joey.

This is, in itself, pretty damn weird. But given everything they've seen today, Joey supposes he's had stranger experiences. So he just keeps walking. 'Say what, Kaiba?'

'You refused to let us split up, and look what almost happened.' Kaiba snaps. 'If Yugi hadn't pulled that sudden burst of inexplicable power –which I _still_ want an explanation for, by the way – out of god only knows where, then we'd all be dead by now. You do realise that, don't you?'

'Sure I realise that. Little hard not to realise when you've gotta giant mutant circus entertainer breathing down ya neck, Kaiba.'

'Then what was all that garbage about "Not splitting the party?" because "that's not the way it works in movies?" Kaiba snaps. 'For _god's_ sakes, what do you think it is?'

'Uhh... Kaiba? Look around. We've got monsters crawling outta the waterworks, giant mutant pachyderms attacking in the streets, darkness, demons, the freakin' _Shadow Realm_ on our doorsteps. This is about as close to a _movie_ as it gets.'

'It's still a _ridiculous_ comparison.'

'That's pretty rich coming from you. Our _lives_ are ridiculous. Would'a figured you'd have a little faith in that by now, man.'

_Yeah_, Joey thinks. _Because _Seto Kaiba_ and _Faith_ are totally words that belong together in the same sentence. Can't believe I'm even suggesting it...'_

'Believe it or not, Wheeler, I am capable of having faith in things I can't see. I just don't tend to place that faith in the same clichés you find in children's television.'

'Oh, yeah? So says the guy who plays duel monsters for a living.'

'I run a company for a living. _Duel monsters_ is a hobby.'

'Oh, right. Yeah, that totally makes all the difference.'

Kaiba doesn't have a back answer for that –another surprise. _Guess he's just full of 'em today_. There's silence for a few moments, except for the sound of their footsteps crunching against a gravel path. Joey looks around, and it slowly dawns on him that there much be _people_ living back here, in the seemingly empty backstreets of Vienna. He can't believe they've come so far without seeing anymore of those _monsterspeoplefreaks_; maybe Jumbo has already scared them all off.

'...I knew you'd come after me.' Kaiba says.

Joey blinks at him. 'Say what?'

'Back at the airport when Mokuba's plane was coming down.' Kaiba says, calmly, kicking fallen debris out of his way as he walks. 'I knew. That's why I went out into the darkness. Not that I wouldn't have gone anyway. With Mokuba out there, I would've run into anything.' His fists clench tightly, and Joey, thinking of Serenity, can believe him. 'But I still know that if you _hadn't_ followed, those monsters would've killed me seconds after I turned on the beam. But you _did_ come, and you gave me the few extra seconds I needed to guide the plane in. I knew that you would.' He scowls slightly beneath the shadows. 'That enough "faith" for you?'

'…The hell, Kaiba?'

And all of a sudden it begins to make sense. Kaiba _knew_ that Yugi wouldn't want him dead. Hell, Yugi wouldn't want anyone dead. And they all knew that _Yugi_ wouldn't want it, too. Including Bakura…

Joey shook his head to clear his head a bit. 'You mean you knew we'd come to help ya out? On the middle of a runway filled with a bunch of crazy not-human freaks prepared to rip us to pieces? Seriously? You used us like some kinda auto-freaking-defensive shield? Because you knew we'd do what Yugi wanted? Man, that's _not_ what the whole bond-that-can-defy-time-and-death-thing is supposed to be about'

'Look, I said it once, I'll say it again,' Kaiba says dryly. 'It might be a placebo effect, Joey, but your faith in one another... Yugi's need to protect people... it rubbed off on you and it works for you. I'm still alive, aren't I?'

'Joey pauses, scratching his head as his brain works its way from one end of the conversation to the other, slowly fitting the pieces into place, like a really strange millennium puzzle. 'Wait, wait, waaaait. So, are you tryin' to tell us that you... _wanted_ our help? _You_? The high an' mighty Seto Kaiba, and you actually _wanted_ us to help ya?'

'I knew damn well that I couldn't fight off fifty of those things at once if that's what you mean,' Kaiba snorts. 'Don 't read anything into it, Mutt. I've kept this up for going on eight years now. Why would I stop now, just because of one little European apocalypse?'

Ah. Mutt. _There's_ the Kaiba they know and don't-really-love-butwill-put-up-with-because-he-keeps-on-lending-them-jets-and-stuff. Joey whistled through his teeth. 'Not even a thank you, eh? Kaiba you are one _strange_ guy.'

'I refer you to your own "That's rich coming from you".'

_They're having a conversation_, Joey thinks. He's walking through the backstreets of Vienna with the CEO of Kaiba Corp (who, up until that moment, has refused to address him as anything other than "Mutt", "Wheeler", "idiot", or something else equally insulting), and they're _having_ a _conversation_. Or as close to one as they've ever gotten without flinging insults, that is. And Joey's not sure which of them has changed enough in the last five years to allow such a conversation to take place... Maybe both of them.

They've grown up, he realises. And maybe, just maybe, they're slowly growing beyond the need to throw insults at one another.

'Uh... boys?'Mai snaps. 'As much as I hate to interrupt your little male bonding session...' (She brushes right other the hiss of annoyance on Kaiba's face). '...Would you mind bonding a little more quietly? We're trying to attract the servant of doom and apocalypse here.'

'As much as I hate to agree,' Kaiba mutters. 'You heard her, mutt – shut up and stop bugging me already.'

'Ahh, chill out already, Kaiba! Joey grins. You already know there ain't anything that can stop us when we're on a roll! Hilfe kommt!'

'Wheeler, you don't even know what that means. And even if you did your accent is terrible.'

* * *

**Domino City Airport, 10:23 am**

Her pumps have metal toecaps, and they're clattering against the marble floor of the airport lobby. Serenity tries not to think too much by focussing upon the sound they're making. _Tap, tap, tap, tap_. _Just... keep it together until your brother gets back_.

Oh. That rhymes.

Now Serenity knows she's losing it. Either that or she's had too much coffee and damn, she never _could_ handle that stuff. She sits there in a plastic chair, feeling angry and afraid and totally, totally useless. Here she is, little Serenity all grown up, and _still_ running around after her _older_ brother.

It's kind of pathetic, really.

'Yes it is, isn't it But then, what else are little sisters for if not to annoy the oblivion out of you?' Bakura smirks, and Serenity jumps, her spine prickling.

'W-what?'

'You heard me. Here you are, sitting in some airport in the middle of nowhere, able to do absolutely nothing to help him, and yet you still insist on following him around,' Bakura smirks. 'Quite frankly, you're right – it _is_ pathetic.'

Serenity swallows, eyes passing over the ring around his neck. 'Can you... I-I thought the millennium eye was the one which—'

'Oh it is. But it doesn't take a millennium item to read the expression on your face, little mouse girl.'

'Don't call me that.'

'What, mouse? I happen to think it rather suits you.' He's mocking her, leering in a way that would make Joey want to punch him if Joey were here...

But Joey isn't here right now, Serenity swallows hard. He isn't here. She'll have to be okay on her own for a while. And she can do that, she knows she can. Yami Bakura or no Yami Bakura.

Not that Duke isn't quite prepared to play Joey's substitute. 'Yami Bakura, leave it _out_ already, he says. 'Serenity, just ignore him. He's playing games with you. He plays games with everyone. _And_ he's frustrated too, because _he_ has somebody he wants to reach as well,' his eyes narrow. 'Don't you, Yami Bakura?'

Yami Bakura grunts, leaning back in a plastic chair and continuing to glare at random passersby, seemingly just to bother them. 'You can't blame me. He'd be a lot safer if he just stuck around me in the first place instead of running off to that precious little university of his.'

'I wish I could be sure of that.' Duke says, dryly. 'But I don't really trust you within a mile of him anyway. I guess there's nothing we can do about it; you _are_ the other half of Bakura's soul. We've known that ever since the battle in the ceremonial tomb.'

Bakura lets out a breath which sounds like a sigh, but probably isn't. 'Ah _yes_. The one the Little Yugi somehow managed to win, as I recall. But that wasn't _enough_ for him, was it? Oh, no _then_ the new King of Games chose to bend fate to his _own_ liking as well, didn't he?'

Duke's fists clench. 'Take. That. Back.'

Oh, _please_.' Yami Bakura says, his voice dripping with sarcasm. 'Like you can change the truth.'

Serenity shuffles, feeling like she's tuned in right in the middle of an episode of some long running television show and doesn't know the whole story. 'Duke...? What are you guys talking about?'

'It's nothing, Serenity,' Duke sighs, but Yami Bakura doesn't seem to agree.

'You surprise me, Duke. It isn't _nothing_ at all. And I imagine this doesn't make much sense to you, does it, Serenity?' Yami Bakura grins. 'You weren't there. It was _quite_ the interesting duel, that one. The King of Games usurped by his own soul partner, in his own game.' He chuckled quietly.

_Tap tap tap tap. Don't lose your cool Serenity, he's just some freaky other worldly spirit. You've dealt with those a thousand times, right? _'I know all about the Ceremonial Duel. My brother told me when he got home from Egypt.'

'I'm sure he did. But nobody ever explained to you exactly _how_ that battle ended, did they?'

'Because it doesn't matter,' Duke says, coldly. 'Yugi won, Yami lost. What more is there to say?'

'How about how much that win and that loss changed the balance of magic as we know it?' Yami Bakura snaps, and Serenity can feel the air growing colder all around them, a passenger passing nearby wraps his coat more tightly around himself and shivers. 'Unlike _some_ people, I would've been _quite_ happy with the Pharaoh's failure in that duel. You think I _wanted_ to stay here, in this world of simpering fools and idiots? Even the shadow realm could hold no worse a punishment. '

'Oh, yeah. I totally believe you there,' Duke snorts. 'You'd have that place taken over within a week.'

'Ha. We may never know, Mortal. For so long as Yami is bound to the spirit of little Yugi, so too am I bound to Bakura Ryou. But no matter, back to my point: Little Yugi broke the rules, and you know it. He messed around with the Shadow Realm for his own selfish purposes, and this world has been paying for it ever since.'

'What... do you mean?' Serenity asks, not certain she really wants to know.

Yami Bakura looks at her; a long, sober, dangerous look. 'Because he wouldn't fulfil his side of the deal, of course. He won that duel, and was offered his prize. But he decided he would rather keep his curse instead. When he won that duel, little Yugi held the power of the universe in his hand for a few brief moments, and he used it in ways that should never be allowed. He used it to bring back the dead.'

Serenity shudders, suddenly very aware of the coldness of the plastic at her back and the warmth of Duke's hand against her shoulder. She finds herself hoping and hoping that he doesn't take his hand away again, because it feels like the only thing left the world with any warmth.

'Yami Bakura—!'

'Oh, shut _up_, Devlin, your constant whimpering is giving me a headache.' Yami Bakura growls. 'You see, my dear Mouse, because Yugi allowed for the Pharaoh's return he left a gap wide open in the realm of darkness. A gap which the shadow creatures and monsters beyond were all too happy to rise and fill. Haven't you noticed the number of missions your dear older brother has been going on lately? The number of worldwide crises? The many phone calls at strange hours of the night? It's because little Yugi and his Pharaoh keep needing them to save their worthless lives.'

He looks at Serenity, as if judging her reaction. Her foot keeps _tap-tap-tapping_ against the airport floor. 'You know what this means, don't you? The walls between our world and the spirit world are weaker than ever. You can expect many more catastrophes of this sort in the coming years as the magical realms struggle to keep up with the problem. And all because one little boy couldn't bear to let a loved one go when it was time.' He grunts, seeming uanware of the look on Serenity and Duke's faces. 'I can only hope my own Surface isn't so damned clingy when _my_ time comes, because if the _pharaoh's_ absence from the afterlife has left such a gaping hole, then I can only imagine what kind of a void _I'd _create_.' _'

Serenity takes a moment, processing what Yami Bakura is saying. He stands up, brandishing his hands around the crowded, nervous, chaotic mess of the airport all around them, one plane after another vanishing from the scheduled arrivals and departures board as they were either cancelled, or lost somewhere in the mists surrounding Europe. 'I _do_ hope he appreciates the chaos he's brought upon the world all for the sake of one long dead Pharaoh's life. Because the whole world may be suffering for it.

Serenity turns to look at Duke, but he doesn't say anything. There's a vaguely disturbed confusion settling across his features, and Serenity shivers as she settles back in her chair and tries to tell herself that Yami Bakura is wrong.

* * *

**Vienna. 04:00 am **

'So, that's it, huh?'

It isn't the most dramatic of introductions, but Joey basically has the right idea. Yami doesn't know whether to smile or scowl as he stares at the endless body of black water stretched out before them.

'Yes. The waters of the Undernile.'

'Undernile?' Yugi whispers.

'Well, more specifically it's the _Under Danube_, partner.' Yami explains. 'But it's a part of the same system so the difference is irrelevant.'

He lets go of Yugi's arm and steps closer to the riverside. There is but empty silence and the dark, purple and grey waters are flickering even in the absence of light. Now that they're here looking down into its depths, it's impossible to imagine that this destruction could've begun anywhere else. The answers click into place inside of his mind, like the pieces of a puzzle.

'Creepy, isn't it?' Téa swallows.

'Yeah, I'm pretty sure that isn't the same water they sell in fancy bottles at the convenience store back home,' Tristan whistles.

'Not anymore it's not.' Bakura mutters, lifting one hand, as if he might be able to touch the void with his fingertips. He glimpses at Yugi and the message passes soundlessly between them. 'Here then, Yugi?'

'Seems as good a place to start as any,' Yugi shrugs, seeming slightly embarrassed. 'Are you... feeling anything yet?'

Bakura swallows, drawing back his hand as if somebody has burned it. 'That depends on what you mean. I _do_ feel extremely sick to my stomach right now.'

'Heh. Yeah, me too. But I'm not sure that has anything to do with what we're looking for. Try...' He pauses, creasing his forehead, and Bakura can't tell if it's because of pain, or confusion. Or maybe both. 'Try focussing _through_ the water. Looking for where the shadows are coming from.'

'You make it sound easy.' Bakura frowns. 'But I'm not sure how to do that.'

'No, neither am I.' Yugi bites his lip, and Yami follows suite because this is yet another unanticipated dilemma. He hadn't been sure from the beginning whether or not Bakura and Yugi would really be able to trace the path of the darkness. He'd just been hoping, because that was how it had always worked when they encountered something dark and dangerous in the past. Now, however... he isn't so sure.

And this is not a good time for doubts.

'This is crazy,' Kaiba snaps. 'We made it all the way here and now what? You two are going to rely on your gut instincts to find the source?'

'If you have any better ideas, Kaiba, then I'd love to hear them,' Yami says dryly.

'How about this: we follow the same suggestion I made earlier. We split up. Divide into two parties and send Bakura with one group and Yugi with the other.'

'You can't seriously mean we have to search the whole damned river,' Tristan mutters. 'Even with two parties, man, that's miles of ground to cover, and we don't have any idea how many more of those monsters could be out there. Come _on_, we'll never make it. Aren't we on a time limit?'

'Well, a time limit which only applies provided that we can't reverse the changing process of the infected population, really.' Yugi says.

'Which we don't _know_,' Tristan answers. 'For all we know all of Europe could already be a lost cause already. Which means the faster we work the fewer people are gonna die in the end.'

'Uh, guys?'

Téa's nervous voice pulls them out of the debate, and they turn to see her standing at the edge of the river, leaning over the railing. 'I've... I think I've found something,' Téa squeaks. 'But I don't think it's what we were _hoping_ for. You remember what we were saying about a _zoo_ nearby?'

Joey whimpers. 'Oh, man, Téa tell me there are _not_ mutant alligators in that water?'

'N-no,' Téa stammers. 'Not alligators. More like snakes, really. And ... and possibly piranhas. And _people_.'

Yami reacts, reaching out to drag Téa back away from the water's edge. That's when he sees it – the white shapes curdling in the water below. As he looks, the thrashing grows until the river seems as if it's boiling, twisted, broken limbs climbing over one another to reach the river bank.

Shadow creatures. _Real_ ones, this time, not just people who had been polluted by the bad water. They're crawling about in the deep black waters, writhing in the shadows leaking up from deep within the Underdanube. And Téa is probably right about some of them coming from the zoo as well. He can imagine what must have happened when the shadow infection first began: the animals would have been affected first, their instincts dragged upon by the darkness deep within every living soul. He can imagine them breaking out of captivity, animal upon animal racing for the waters, drawn by some new, dark instinct inside of them. The monster that attacked them before had just been doing what Samantha and all the other freaks were doing... trying desperately to reach the light which both terrified, and called to it.

...Yami had always hated the idea of zoos, anyway.

'Well the good news is, I guess that now we know a little more about what happened to Atlantis,' Yugi swallows, not seeming to find this _good_ news at all. 'I'm willing to bet this is just the same kind of magical incident.'

'I repeat my earlier plan to split up,' Kaiba interrupts. 'Now that they all know we're here anyway, it hardly makes a difference.'

'Right...' Yami murmurs, reaching back to clutch Yugi's arm, whether his other wants it or not. 'Yugi's with me.'

Kaiba smirks. 'Of course.'

'Téa and Tristan too.' Yami goes on, ignoring the smirk. 'Bakura, you take Mai and Joey. Kaiba...' he pauses. 'Go with whoever you prefer.'

Kaiba waits a moment before stepping slowly in Yami's direction. 'Done.'

'Very well.' Yami looks around at the confused and anxious faces. He looks at Yugi, with his eyes still bright and hopeful, in spite of everything... 'Then let's begin.'

'I repeat my earlier warning,' Tristan mutters. 'This is crazy.'

'But it's still the only plan we have,' Mai answers. 'and so far as plans go... I think it's as good as we're going to get guys. Now, Bakura, see if you can get those little magical, good-and-evil-sensing gifts of yours working _properly_, will you? And try not to blow us all to kingdom come while you do it?'

* * *

**Vienna International Airport 12. 04:06 am **

It's been pretty quiet at the Vienna International Airport since his brother left with the others.

Quiet. _Not_ silent. Because the creatures haven't gone away entirely. They've just been... skulking out there on the runways. And for this long, Mokuba and Marcus had kept their distance, sticking to the middle of the airport and avoiding any windows.

This strategy had worked for a while... now, however, Mokuba can hear the scratching of inhuman fingers against the glass and stone of nearby walls, and there's no question about it: the monsters are drawing in again.

'Mister Kaiba!' Mokuba's head snaps up from the airport map he's been studying, to see Marcus returning from his latest scouting trip. 'I don't think it'll be long before those... things start drawing in, sir. They're moving across the runway now. I think some of them are entering the building.'

'Yeah. I guess we've only got as long as it takes them to work out that Yugi isn't here anymore,' Mokuba swallows. 'They don't have to worry about _us_ burning them to a crisp. I think we have a little more time though. Keep watching.'

Marcus doesn't seem all that reassured by this information. Mokuba doesn't blame him; after all Marcus had basically put his life in the hands of a fifteen year old, and Mokuba knows fine well what happened to the _last_ employee who did that... '_No. Don't think about him. Don't think about Daisuke, or Ai or Motoko. Don't think about the people you've gotten killed already_.' Thinking about them won't help a bit, so he just studies the map closely, and makes a mental note to increase Marcus (does he even know his surname?)'s salary as soon as they get back home to Japan.

'I'm not sure we even have that long, sir. I... I'm pretty sure I was spotted coming back. They know we're no threat to them, and... well, I think we look pretty much like their next meal.'

'Thanks, Marcus, I'd realised,' Mokuba mutters. There are more of them in the building than Marcus realises. Mokuba can hear them rasping through the ceiling and scratching around the walls nearby. They're getting closer. 'Stay here where it's safe huh? Some logic you had there, big bro. Totally gonna bring this up when we get home.'

_If we get home_.

'It's been over an hour since they left. Think my brother's gotten to the bottom of this mystery yet?'

'No offence, but somehow I doubt it, sir.'

'Yeah, right.' Mokuba can't help but agree. He sighs deeply, a frightened sensation chilling his bones. He squashed it as quickly as he could. 'And even if they have, I'm not sure it'd help us. If we wanna get out of this one, Marcus, then we're gonna need some kinda miracle. Or more appropriately, we're gonna have to _make_ a miracle for ourselves. Come on!'

Then he turns and races in the direction of what he's pretty sure used to be an arcade with the sound and shape of monsters looming in behind of him, and the reflection of their bright eyes shining everywhere he looks. Mokuba can't quite convince himself that this is the product of unwarranted paranoia.

* * *

**The Danube River 04:18 am **

What they need, Yami thinks, as they follow the sound of the river, is a miracle.

And normally that wouldn't be such a worry, because he's the other half of the King of Games. He hangs around with ancient spirits and handles world destroying artefacts on a daily basis. He's beaten _Yami_ in a duel. He knows many wonderful, incredible, perfectly ordinary people who can broke into the shadow realm to rescue people from oblivion. He's three thousand years old and counting.

Impossible is their usual degree of difficulty. Miracles are their department.

But these are _not_ their usual odds, and Yami has no idea what will happen even if _they_ win. The difference could be between the whole continent, or the entire world. The difference between all of their friends dying and all of Europe living.

_Don't worry. _The voice echoes up inside of his mind like a warm blanket, and Yami doesn't have to turn and see Yugi to know what his expression will be.

There is much that Yami doesn't understand about his other self. He's walking on a shattered ankle; he's been thrown from two cars, and has had the pressure of the Shadow Realm eating at him for three days.

And yet he's the one telling _Yami_ not to be afraid.

'_I'm not worried. I'm with you_.' Yami thinks back. It's a lie and Yugi knows it, but he seems grateful for Yami's faith, nonetheless. 'How're you doing?

'_Ngh. Head hurts. And all this... focussing on the shadows isn't really helping_.' He squints. '_Is it just me, or are there two of Tristan?_'

Yugi's using close enough to a jocular tone for Yami not to panic. '_Ah, no, last I checked there was definitely only one of him. I think you're looking at Téa's back._'

'_Oh. Oops. It's kinda hard to tell in this dark... And I think Tristan changed his hair.' _

'_No, he always looks like that, partner. He's looked like that for the last eight years, and short of one of us dragging him to a hair salon and strapping him down in a chair, I don't think it's going to change_.'

'_You_ _realise _we're_ not exactly in a position to be talking about anybody's _hair_, right, Yami_?'

'_Ah. Well played, Partner. You don't have a concussion, then. If you did I'm sure you couldn't come up with something so witty_.'

Yugi winces. '_I think I'd prefer a concussion_.'

'_There, you see? I knew I'd get a confession of pain from you eventually_.' Actually, he'd prefer it if Yugi just had a concussion as well. Concussion was so much easier to deal with tan the overwhelming pressure of the Shadow Realm. But saying this won't help, so he casts around for something more encouraging to say instead. '_Your tolerance is improving.'_

'_Mm… what?_'

'_There was a time you wouldn't have survived ten minutes in these conditions, Yugi. Remember duelling Pegasus?_'

'_Yes, though I'd rather not... I guess you're right_. _We've all gotten used to it._' A smile tweaked his lips, and Yami becomes aware of Yugi leaning on him, just a little more than he'd gladly admit to as they walk. '_I was doing really well until we crashed that second car_.'

'You guys need to stop doing that.' Téa says, and Yugi starts so suddenly that he almost falls over. Yami only lets the concern show for half a second, but that's long enough for Yugi to notice it and push him away with a reassuring hand.

'Doing? Doing what?'

'Oh, come on, we've known you two for years now,' Tristan smiles. 'You don't think we know when you're gossiping with each other inside of your heads? There are _signs_, man.'

Yugi blinks. 'Hey... We do _not_ gossip.'

'Nope. You just complain about us, don't you?' Téa says, with a mock drama she probably picked up in New York. 'It's my new _outfit_, isn't it? You don't think it's appropriate for a good Japanese girl to walk around in knee high books and stylishly worn-out jeans. I _knew_ I sensed disapproval.'

Yugi giggles, and Yami finds himself smirking at Téa's eyes, glistening blue in the darkness. 'Oh no, Téa, I'm sure it's quite an appropriate fashion statement for the leader of a New York dance troupe. Which reminds me, did I mention that you're developing a very rudimentary New York accent?'

'Is that a compliment, or...?'

'I really wouldn't know, is it?' Yami says, innocently.

'Sheesh,' Tristan mutters. 'Yami's joking, now I _know_ it's the end of the world.'

The jokes are weak and inappropriate, and this is completely the wrong time for humour anyhow, but they all know that already so Yami doesn't mention it. Besides, they're keeping their voices as low as they can to avoid attracting the attention of any shadow creatures (not that any of them seem to be gathered near the river, which is... odd, but understandable. The creatures that were once people are as terrified of the darkness within them as they are drawn to it. They probably don't have any idea what to do with themselves and so stalk the streets, confused and lost without their former identities.

Just like Samantha...

At any rate, Yami thinks, he's starting to get the feeling that joking around is the only thing keeping any of them sane. Well, except for Yami himself. The only think keeping Yami sane is—

' Yugi? Yugi!'

And just like that, Yugi isn't supporting his own weight anymore. It happens so quickly that Yami doens't even have time to notice the switch flicking inside of his brain, switching Yugi's signal from _on_ to _off_. Yugi is slumping forwards onto his knees while Yami tries to support him. Yami reconsiders his thoughts about concussions, before realising that this reaction is probably more to do with the explosions of energy Yugi's been throwing about lately than it is to do with his head having collided with anything particularly hard.

'Yugi, are you alright?' Téa is asking.

'I knew it; he's down,' Tristan mutters. 'You can't go throwing that much magical energy around in the middle of a shadow game and not pay for it, man. Yugi, talk to us. How many fingers am I holding up?'

Yugi holds up a shaking hand, and Yami relaxes a bit as the signal returns, and strengthens as quickly as it had vanished. 'No, wait. N-nothing, it's nothing, just wait... Yugi takes a deep breath, gripping the cobbled stone beneath his fingers, listening with something that is very definitely not his ears. So technically, it's not _really_ listening at all, but-

Yugi's eyes open, and they're shining with an all too familiar brightness. 'I think I sense something.'

'What? You think you're onto it?' Tristan looked around urgently. 'Yugi, do you sense the soruce.'

'I'm not sure, but there's definitely _something_ over there. Just around the bend.' Yugi half crawled several feet to the side, and looked down through the bars. The whiteness of the shadow creatures blurs thick and fast against the surface. There are more here than there have ever been elsewhere. 'Look at that... they're everywhere.'

'Yeah, I think he's right,' Téa whispers, and now she's shivering as if she too can feel the blackness pressing down upon her soul as easily as Yami and Yugi can. They're close. Close enough to touch it.

'Yugi, listen.' Yami says, slowly, gathering his nerves. 'Just point it out for us. We'll call our friends and get Bakura to do this part.'

'No. Don't even think about it, Yami,' Yugi says. 'This one is ours.' He gestures with an arm, indicating that he wants to be lifted. 'Help me out here, so I get find my footing. And... and then you and Téa need to stay back, Tristan, I don't know if you could handle getting much closer to it.'

'Iiii'm not sure about this, Yugi,' Tristan mutters, biting his lip. 'You're kinda out of it.'

'Well I don't think Bakura would be in much better stead. What he gains in immediate health he loses due to a lack of direct contact.' Yugi says, and Yami knows he's right, he _knows_ he is, but the tug between their souls feels stronger here than it has been since that day in the ceremonial chamber.

'Yugi—' he starts to say, and then...

Then Yugi just _looks_ at him, and that look says everything that's ever been said before, and doesn't need to be said again. It tells Yami to trust him, and so he does. 'I... I started this, Yami,' Yugi says. 'So I'll _finish_ it, too. Come on, let's go. We've got a continent to save.'


	15. Chapter 15

**And now the entrance of some people you may have assumed I forgot. We're heading for a climax now, and I'm looking forwards to getting there. (And please bear in mind that however crazy my final resolution looks, we **_**are**_** dealing with a fandom that employ the Flying Catapult Turtle Castle Gambit as a matter of course.) Standard disclaimers apply. **

* * *

_"If you're like us, calling all riders, roll up beside us, no place to hide us,  
all freedom fighters, let's unite us, switch on your nitrous and let go_

_Destination, for navigation, man up ya stations, feel the sensation_

_Surround invasion, with communication, move quick,_

_we might avoid contamination."_

Phenomenon, _Thousand Foot Kutch_.

* * *

**03:00am, New York International Airport, Arrivals Lounge.**

They arrive in New York to find utter chaos.

Which would have been there anyway, considering that this is _New York_. However , it is not strictly the chaos that she had been expecting, there are... people, everywhere. Most of whom are not waiting for loved ones so much as waiting to find out what on earth is going to _happen_ to their loved ones. The airport is more crowded than Ishizu has ever seen it before, even during the chaotic mess of Dartz's attack on Domino.

The air is tense and frantic. Airport employees are walking around without their trademark smiles and grace. People... argue and snap and complain, and small children cling crying to their parents ankles or pull their siblings hair. All it would take to instigate a rampage would be for somebody with an "END IS NIGH" placard to begin counting down from fifty.

No doubt about it, Ishizu thinks. The sense of tension is greater here than it was in Egypt.

Marik coughs. 'Ah. Well... this is...'

'Frantic?' Odion suggests. 'Chaotic? A psychic disaster waiting to happen?'

'I was going to say highly disorganized.' Marik says. 'And the atmosphere around here can't be helping people's nerves. Things could get nasty if this keeps up...'

Ishizu examines the crowd closely. The millennium necklace has not worked for her in years now, but Marik's statement seems far more like a prophecy than anything.

'Well, sister?' Marik asks uneasily. 'If you were planning to tell us why you brought us here then... well, now would be a good time.'

'I did not plan to bring us _here_, if you recall, Marik,' Ishizu mumbles. 'I was aiming for England. However, this may turn out not to matter if my estimate is correct.'

'Estimate?' Marik frowns. 'You're applying figures?'

'Of a sort. I hope it will become clear soon. Brothers, come with me,' she says, taking Marik's arm and pulling them steadily through the crowd. When a serviceman spots her to as her identity, Ishizu merely pulls herself upright and states in her most official tone that she is here as a representative of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, and hopes that sounds more important than it actually is. It has the desired effect; or perhaps the serviceman is just too frantic and on-edge to care very much about three oddly dressed stragglers in the middle of the airport.

They pass through the building unnoticed.

* * *

**The Danube River, South 04:35 am **

Joey grumbled, shoving a completely dead cellphone back into his pocket, and kicking at the cobbles by the river side, pointedly trying not to look over the railing into the thrashing black and white waters. 'I'm just saying that if I'd _known_ yesterday morning that the fate of the world and our best buddies lives were both gonna be riding on our shoulders again, I _would've_ charged my cell.'

'We _know_, Joey,' Mai sighs, pausing to remove her high heels for the umpteenth time. You'd think by now after so many apocalypses, she'd have thought to invest in something a little more practical. In their case it seems like even hindsight is never twenty-twenty. 'At least we still have mine, though we can't get an online connection with it anyway. I just think we should call up the other group and let them know how we're doing.'

'And _I _think we need a _map_ here. I've got no idea where we are! And you're trying to tell me mister super executive business guy here doesn't have a phone with an online connection?' Joey points at Kaiba accusingly. 'Come _on_, man.'

'I have a portable laptop that I use for online purposes,' Kaiba says. 'I left it on a seat in the jet when we were attacked by _monsters_ in mid flight. I was a little preoccupied at the time. And I see no reason why some know-it-all idiot decided to install Wi-Fi on _mobile phones_ with screens the size of your palm. You can't _do_ anything with a piece of software that small. Besides which, we do not need a map, Joey. We're following a damned _river_. There are only two directions we can go in the first place.'

'Yeah, sure, that logic worked great until about _now_. And Bakura doens't even own a phone!' (Which is weird, who in the heck _doesn't_ own a mobile phone?)

'Some people just don't keep up with the times.'

Okay, he's definitely close to holding an actual conversation with this guy. Now Joey _knows_ he's going nuts.

Bakura winces. 'Guys, I _am_ still here, you know. And if you'd please? I'm trying to concentrate and you're not making it easy.'

'Oh. Sorry, just...' Joey shrugs. 'This atmosphere, you know. It's freaking me out. I keep thinking we're gonna see jumbo's big brother around the next corner.' Actually, they haven't seen any of the shadow monsters at all for a while now, except for those strange creatures crawling around in the water and they, for the most part, have left them well enough alone. That's kind of strange. He would've thought this place would be crawling with stiffs...

'I hardly think that knowing the name of the street you get killed on will help you, Joey.' Mai sighs. 'And you even sure you know what you're doing, Bakura? You've never done this kind of thing before so how can you be sure it's working?'

'Quite frankly, Mai, I'm _not_ sure,' Bakura sighs. He has his eyes closed and his hands reached out in front of him, like a water dowser. From the way his face is crunched up, he's not having any luck. 'Yugi is far more experienced with this than I, and my own previous experience with shadow magic came from... well, more dubious sources.' (_Namely Yami Bakura, god only knows why 'Kura puts up with him after everything he did_...) 'I'm definitely aware of _something,_ but it's like trying to find a single slightly blacker pin in a haystack full of regular black ones, you know?'

Kaiba stares at him. 'No.'

'Oh. Well,' Bakura sighs, eyes opening. 'I can't think of a better analogy I'm afraid. Whatever I'm trying to do it isn't working.'

'I'd love to say I'm surprised,' Kaiba scowls. 'Though I'm not sure your efforts are even needed, anyway. Look at the water,' Joey looks before his brain can think to protest Kaiba's rudeness. The water is still crawling with ugliness, but... not crawling as much. There are places where the water is almost entirely pitch black.

'Yeah, we're looking,' Mai says sarcastically. 'Snakes, severed limbs... floating monsters, generally disgusting examples of the Shadow Realms inhabitants... what about it?'

'Can't you tell? There are less of them. The river's a lot clearer here than it was back where we started. And it's getting clearer as we walk.'

Bakura blinks. 'Oh. Well then that would suggest that—'

'That we drew the short straw and we're going the wrong way. Away from the epicentre,' Kaiba says. Looks like Yugi and the others got it right. They're going in the right direction while we're off on a wild goose chase.'

'Ah... well, that would certainly explain why I'm not feeling much, Bakura mumbles.

'Oh, _now_ who thinks we don't need a cell phone?' Joey growls. 'Mai?'

'Hold on, hold on,' Mai is scrambling around in her coat (if you can call it a "coat"... how the heck does that tiny little thing even _have_ pockets, he'd like to know?) 'It's in here somewhere, let me dig it out.'

And then Joey isn't looking at Mai anymore. He's looking right past her and at Bakura, who has dropped his hands to his side and is staring at something in the depths of the river.

'Bakura? What is it?' It's too much to hope for probably, but he can't help asking: 'Do you sense something?'

Bakura swallows visibly, the colour draining from his already rather pallid cheeks. 'I... No... but I see something, and I don't think you're going to like the looks of it.'

The look on his face reassures Joey that this is probably true. But he has to turn around anyway, and when he does, he realises he hears strangled, muffled groans and hisses, not just from the water below, but from the streets all around them. The noises scratch at the back of his mind like fingernails, coming closer with every heartbeat.

Mai stops looking for her cellphone. Kaiba swears, and Bakura does the only thing he could probably think of to do; the same thing they'd been doing ever since they arrived here. He reaches out to grab Joey's wrist, and for just a second before he starts pulling, Jounouchi feels that same crackling buzz of electricity that he felt from Bakura on the airport runway, as well as the tension in Bakura's wrist, indicating that he is absolutely determined not to unleash such destruction again.

They run.

* * *

**03:15am, New York John F. Kennedy International Airport, Main Entrance.**

They step out into the darkness of the New York streets, and almost immediately, the sense of chaos around them increases. It's a peculiar sensation, one that even perfectly ordinary people with no experience can feel: a kind of crackling in the air, like static on your tongue. She might have expected to receive more strange looks with regards to their peculiar clothing and appearance, but this being New York, they don't stand out particularly anyway.

The night air is warm, but it's not a patch on Egypt, and Ishizu tells herself that this is why Marik shivers as he tries to work out the cab routes, and continues shivering after they have successfully flagged one down.

The driver of the cab is shivering a little too, rubbing his hands together and muttering. 'Funny night out here, huh? You guys travelling for business or pleasure?'

'Neither. We had to take an emergency flight.'

'We were heading for a completely different continent.' Marik says, unable to keep the annoyance out of his voice. 'But what with all of these diversions we ended up here.'

'Yeah, some craziness that is,' the driver whistles. His accent is sharp and heavy and suggests a man who has lived in New York all his life, but has many relatives who don't, and has picked up one their accent. 'Those guys in charge, they say they've got everything under control but... I've seen the online videos; you know you can see the storm clouds in Austria from England? Lucky for us we decided not to take that trip to Paris, my old lady and me. Where was it you asked for again?' the driver leans back over the chair.

'I didn't. The Main street, please. Near the Empire state.'

'The Empire? That's gonna be one helluva bill there.'

'We'll be fine. I appreciate your concern, but we will do the best we can.'

The driver shrugs, as if he hears this all the time and has learned not to comment. 'Just be careful out there at this time of night, it ain't exactly a good time for a midnight tour of the city, you know?'

'That would stand to reason,' Odion says, calmly. 'The physic energy of the darkness is spreading extremely quickly; it stands to reason that some sensory echoes would be affecting people even as far away as here in New York. Fear not. The crisis shall be dealt with.'

'Ah...' the driver glimpses at Odion in confusion, and Ishizu resists biting her lip. 'Right. So uh... whereabouts did you guys say you come from again?'

'We didn't. And Egypt,' Ishizu says as politely as she can. 'Please excuse our lack of desire for small talk but we are in something of a hurry.'

'What, to get to the Empire state? At this time of night?'

'If we don't get a move on then by tomorrow there might not be an empire states for us to visit,' Marik says, shuddering slightly.

'Uh... right, so, there's a five dollar call out change to begin with.'

Ishizu hands over the money. Nobody asks how she has managed to get a hold of American dollars. Then driver accepts the money with a wary look then shakes his head and turns back to the wheel.

'Least he didn't try to identify our accent. I hate when people spend half an hour trying to identify my accent.' Marik mutters uncomfortably, and Ishizu reaches out and wraps her fingers around his, knowing full well that his discomfort has absolutely nothing to do with anyone's interpretations of his origins.

It's still a half hour's drive to their destination, and Ishizu can only pray that she is following her instincts for the right reasons.

* * *

**The Nevada Desert, 10:15 am.**

This stinks.

Officially. This stinks even more than that time when some creepy guy with weird hair took away her beloved's soul (she still calls him that; it's a strange force of habit that she just hasn't gotten over. Not in five years, and probably not even in twenty). It stinks like losing a duel because of a bunch of characters based on fairy tale books. It stinks like being turned down for Prieston, or stuck in the middle of a desert on an archaeology dig you're only going on because it makes your grandfather happy.

And damn it, why did she choose _this_ _one week _to be away from the university and therefore away from a decent internet connection? Damn it, why couldn't grandfather's birthday be some other time of the year?

'Rebecca, dear, I think you're exaggerating a little.' Grandpa says, and Rebecca realises she's been ranting out loud again. Her fingers stagger on the keyboard, running her coding.

'Grandpa, look at the news.' She sighs. 'On _any_ channel. It doesn't matter which you pick. I am so very much not exaggerating right now. The world is going to pot, and my dar— and _Yugi_ is right in the thick of it, as usual. And _also_ as usual I've been left totally out of the picture.'

'Now now, Yugi knows how busy you are, I'm sure he would've contacted us if he thought it was....' Arthur stops that sentence mudflow, probably realising that it does not get much more serious than the entirety of Europe being carpeted in shadow fogs.

And never mind Europe... Rebecca peered uneasily out of the trailer window, noting how dark it seemed to be across the Nevada desert, considering it was almost mid day in the middle of spring.

Rebecca Hawkins knew an End-Of-The-World level occurrence when she saw one.

'Grandpa, we can't even see Europe anymore! We have friends over there! Relatives! This is beyond serious. Okay, so maybe it's not quite on the same level as giant duel monsters appearing on the streets...' Rebecca shook her head, shaking out her hair from the bandana she'd been using to protect herself from the Nevada sun.

'I know, I know,' Rebecca sighs. 'I'm just starting to wonder, grandpa, how many degrees, birthdays, and commendations I need before they'll start seeing me as anything other than a spoiled little eight year old brat who'll just get in the way.

'You were never once a spoiled brat.'

'Well no... Not a _spoiled_ one, anyway.' Rebecca smiles slightly, then turns back to her computer.

'Ah, you know, Rebecca, we _have_ the Mutou's phone number in the book, there's really no need to hack encrypted government databases to find that information if you need—'

'Heh. Sorry, gramps, that's not what I'm doing. I'm trying to find out what the official authorities are saying about this whole mess when the general public isn't looking their way.'

'Ah. The CIA then.'

'Right.' Rebecca says coolly. 'Somewhere on these websites there's got to be some real information about what's really going on. And I plan to find out what it is.'

'You could get into serious trouble,' Grandpa says, but he's speaking in that voice which Rebecca has come to recognize as having the tagline "_but I won't stop you if it's really that important, I trust you_."

'I know. But I think Yugi's in big trouble right _now_. We know he was in Vienna when this whole thing started, and if I know those guys...' she bites her lip. 'Well, they'll _find_ a way to get to him, I know they will. I just... I wish I could too...'

'I'm _sorry_, dear, if I had known an apocalypse was going to break out, I wouldn't have dumped you on a dig site in Nevada with no transport to the nearest airport.'

Rebecca pauses, turning round in her seat. 'Grandpa, would you really let me buy a ticket and fly out into that mess anyway?'

'If I had refused, would you have accepted it?'

Rebecca hesitated, caught off guard for one long moment before her grandfather smiled at her and she felt compelled to smile back. Then she sighs and turns back to her computer. 'Okay... okay, let's keep working on this. Oh, I am going to _kill_ those guys when I get my hands on them!'

* * *

**The Danube River, South 04:39 am**

They don't manage to run very far before the creatures appear.

The first of them come from the river. Hands that are not really hands clamber up across the metal railings. The second come from the buildings all around them, clambering out of smashed windows, and the smallest of them clambering up from the drains in their hundreds, like swarms of insects. In fact, Joey realises, that's probably exactly what they were. As if bugs and worms weren't creepy enough to begin with, _these_ ones had been given a Shadow Realm makeover.

'Great. What is this, night of the living dead?' Mai talks tough, but she always does. Her voice is tinged with terror.

'Maybe... maybe we can sneak past them.' Joey suggests uneasily. 'I mean, go through the back alleys or something.'

'Unlikely,' Kaiba mutters. 'It's not us specifically that they want. It's Bakura. Wherever he goes they'll follow.'

He's right, Joey realises after a moment. Kaiba's right and Bakura knows it. The creatures were drawn to his light just as they were drawn to Yuugi's, and unlike Yuugi's monsters, they weren't bound by the power of Yami's true name. Unable to pull away, but unable to keep from destroying it when they reached it. and Joey realises that the only reason none of them have attacked yt is fear. They know what Bakura can do to them if he wants to. They know that they've been running into s death trap. And they'll still destroy everything in their path in order to get to it. Including Joey, I, and Kaiba.

'But why now?' Mai snaps. 'I can't work these damned things out, already!'

'If it helps, I don't think they're anymore sure on the issue than we are,' Bakura mumbles/ 'They... they're afraid of the light. But they still want to get to it.'

'Right, horses to a burning barn,' Joey mutters, fists clenching as the area of free space to move around them gets smaller and smaller as the creatures move in. Some of them seem as if they were human once but really, most of them don't. They have too many teeth, too many arms... a couple of thin, white bodies scramble down the wall like dinner-plate sized spiders, and the noise.. .the noise is stinging in his ears. He can't think of a better way to describe it. Just being so close to these creatures wrapped up in darkness and panic makes his head hurt.

'I hardly think it matters_ why _they're doing this,' Kaiba says. ' The point is that they're here, they're probably after _him_, and it's not like we can dump him.'

'Ah... your concern is appreciated, really,' Bakura mutters.

Lesson of the hour: Bakura has discovered the ability to be sarcastic when terrified. But Kaiba is still looking at Bakura, and Bakura is wincing, hands drawn in and wrapped around himself, as if desperate not to crack. 'You can thank us by doing what you did on the runway. We have to get through these things and get back to Yuugi.'

'No.' Bakura snaps.

'Bakura, listen—

'I said no, Kaiba,.' Bakura yells, sounding more serious than he ever has before. 'I won't do it. I won't... I...' He swallows, stepping backwards into Joey's shadow. Joey can feel the light of Bakura's body touching his skin and see the confused anger in his eyes. The fear of death and murder hanging over his head. 'I can't.'

'Kaiba, we're not talking about just the monsters!' Mai snaps. 'We can't tell which of those.. .those things come from the shadow realm and which of them are people!'

'I don't think they'll be so discerning when they're devouring us,' Kaiba hisses, stepping backwards and raising his fists and... Oh, yeah, he knows martial arts, doens't he? Not that it's going to do them the slightest bit of good.

They rise like a tide. Like a storm closing in, and all around you can hear nothing but their shrieks and screams and chaos. The monsters seem to glow in the darkness, so close to the source of their creation, but Joey knows that isn't light he's seeing coming from their bodies. Whatever humanity is left within these monsters is being quickly drowned out by their desperate thirst for destruction –their own included. And Bakura is staring at them in terror, his eyes large and dark, and Joey knows what he's seeing – he's seeing a woman named Samantha, dying in a pool of thin, white blood.

Mai shudders as something far too tall raises its wormlike head and screeches into the horizon. The other creatures join in, in a bizarre parody of warning. 'Times running out here, guys, think fast.'

Joey hisses as a lumbering body that may have belonged to an alligator once snaps at him from out of the deep black water. Water which burns when it touches Joey's skin, hissing right through his clothing. The nearest of the creatures, one with no facial features except for slits of nostril, flaring in the darkness, reaches out a claw towards him.

When he played the events back to himself later on, Joey would edit out his yelp of panic as he snapped away from the creature's jaws, colliding with Kaiba's back as he did so. 'Aw, man where's Atem when ya need him?!'

And then... well, then Joey doesn't know exactly what happens.

One minute he was yelling for Yami and the next, the creature was snapping away from him like he was a red hot stove or something, and in the time it takes him to shuffle as far backwards away from the creature as possible, Joey realises why. He didn't _say_ Yami. He said...

'A-Atem...' he whispers it experimentally, picturing the face in his mind as he does so. The air trembles. He remembers the creatures Yuugi had gathered, being bound by the mere mention of Yami's name...

Mai frowns. 'What is it? Joey—'

Joey whirls round, gripping her hand tightly. 'Yami's real name! Mai, Kaiba, Bakura! Say it!'

'What?' Kaiba scowls.

'Just _trust me_! On the count of three, yell it as loud as you can. Think of it! Picture his face and know it's him!'

'But...' Bakura hesitates. 'Joey, wasn't the very point of calling him Yami to avoid the problems that happen when we call him—'

'Kura, just do it, okay? There's no time!' He feels Mai gripping his hand and phantom breath, icy cold against his neck. The monsters are so close he could touch them and no amount of beating at them is going to make them go away.

What have they got to lose anyway? He takes a breath: 'On three, two, one...'

The name rings out loud across the city of Vienna; whatever remained of the city's electricity supply goes out with a flurry of sparks and a tremble of static, and the phantoms on all four sides of the small group screech in agony. Then they scatter. The creature rearing over the buildings staggers and falls, crashing into the surrounding buildings with a violent creaking. The insects scurry away with violent chaos, eating one another in their panic.

The pathway before them clears, as easily as Moses parting the ocean.

All because they said one damned _name_...

Joey clutches Mai's hand that little bit tighter. 'Now, run!'

* * *

**03:50am, New York, 9th Avenue.**

However much sceptics such as Kaiba attempted to deny it, the world around us is filled with magic, Ishizu was explaining to her brothers as they walked the darkened streets of central New York with nothing but the Millennium rod to protect them.

'And the magical potential of any one location so often comes down to people, inhabiting certain places at certain times.' She said, aware that she was filling her brother sin on information that the pair of them mostly already knew.

'Sometimes, an area is prone to magical phenomenon to begin with, though, Sister.' Marik says, shivering and folding his hands inside his jacket.

'Correct. Places such as Stonehenge, The Empire State Building, and of course, the Pyramids of Giza, were built in locations where the barrier between our world and the shadow world is particularly thin. Kind of like... Magical Nexus points. Our original destination in England was Stonehenge. I theorised that perhaps, if we could reach that place... we might be able to access the shadow world itself.'

That's why you aren't too worried about us being in New York instead of England, then, Sister,' Odion mutters. 'It is an epicentre for magical potential as well, isn't it?

'Yes. It seems that wherever humans congregate, the darkness gathers. It feeds upon the human spirit. More to the point, the entire Shadow Realm that exists within our own is connected on an imitate level.'

' The Undernile?' Marik guesses at what she is talking about.

'Yes. It's connected to every other source of darkness in the world, in one way or another. What is happening in Vienna is linked to what is happening here in New York.'

She pauses, staring up at the infrastructure of the city all around her. New York, Ishizu knew from stories that Tea told him, was a frantic city filled with everything from beautiful parks to ugly street gangs, from quiet coffee shops to bustling roads. From kind old ladies who loaned you tissues to people who would rob you blind as soon as look at you. There were few places in the world that displayed such a huge variety of human temperaments. New York stood as one of the testaments to human constructive achievement. For a world where everything was larger and bolder and stronger, where emotions ran high and secrets ran deep.

In truth, this was probably a better location than they could have hoped for.

'And from here,' Odion says, catching on. 'We can find some way to help stem the magical shadow flow rising in Europe.'

'I get it, Marik mutters. We could at least have made Yugi and Yami's job a little easier by helping reduce the pressure of the shadow magic worldwide. Like... turning off a tap, to stop a pipe leaking half a mile away.'

Ishizu shook her head slightly. 'I only wish that what s happening halfway across the planet were all we had to worry about, my brother. But the chaos is closer than we think. The threat that we have sensed is no longer contained to Europe. It spreads slowly across the world. I believe it is places such as here, in where the final unleashing of darkness will occur first.

'I can believe that.' Marik muttered, still shivering. He was more tuned to the darkness than any of them, Ishizu knew. She could only imagine what he must be feeling. 'So now that we're here... what can we do about it?'

Ishizu pauses for a moment, realising that few all her speeches, she isn't entirely sure just what to do about anything. She had been, as Yuugi might say, planning to cross that bridge when she came to it. Only now they _had_ come to it, and still she was uncertain how to process. Without the omnipotence of the Millennium Necklace she had little idea of what the future held for them, besides darkness and danger.

And let's face it, you didn't need a magical item to sense _that_. 'We... locate the nexus point of this city,' she says, evenly. 'And then... well, we find some way in which to seal it off.'

'And then?'

'Then we hope to the gods that Yuugi can resolve this without us,' Ishizu says, quietly

* * *

**Vienna International Airport, Arcade. 4:41 a.m.**

They're everywhere.

He can't see them in the darkness, but Mokuba knows they're there, because they shift away whenever Marcus turns the light of the torch upon them. Mokuba is counting the seconds he thinks it'll take them to get tired of holding back and rush the light anyway. He knows what it feels like when something wants to kill you. He's had the feeling many times before.

The industrial lamp sputters for several moments, then dies, taking the warmth and safety of its light with it. Marcus swears. 'Damn it, that was all we had that could hold them back!'

Mokuba bites his lip uneasily. The arcade has no entrance doors, just an opening straight into the plaza. There's no way to lock the monsters out, and even if there was, he doubts it would stop them.

'Sir we should move again. If they get in here we'll be completely surrounded.'

'We'll be completely surrounded wherever we go, there's no point!'

No way out now, Mokuba thinks. The only possible way out now is for them to bring back the light.

* * *

**The Danube River, South 04:55 am**

'_Joey? Is... you?_'

Yugi's voice is high pitched and trembling. Which is enough to push Joey's already on edge brain into overdrive, he fumbles with the phone in his grip, lungs still aching from their wild race across the city. The monsters have gone, knocked away by the mere force of Yami's spoken name. Bakura is leaning against a wall clutching his chest, Mai is trying to get out of her high heels and probably wishing she'd had the sense to invest in some running shoes, and Kaiba...

Kaiba's just glaring, as usual. Nice to know Status Quo is in place. 'Yugi? Yeah, it's us.'

'_Are you... kay? You sound like... unning?'_

'Sorry man, we just had a bit of a close encounter with the hellions over here. Oh, by the way, we think the epicentre's probably in your direction, just so you know. You're gonna run into it before we do.'

'_Yeah, I know. And we... feel the aftershocks of your meeting with the shadow monsters from here,' _Yugi chuckles humourlessly. _'We... ve a problem... oey.'_

'What, bigger than the one we already have?'

'_Ah... bigger woul... be the operativ... word, see...' _Yugi's voice is crackling on the phone line and Joey has to bash the phone with his hand to get the sound coming through.

'Hey, Yuge! Speak up a little, this phone's being dumb.'

'Joey for goodness sakes, put the thing on speakerphone,' Mai mutters, rubbing at her feet irritably.

'Oh, right, yeah' Joey fumbles with the phone buttons. 'There ya go, man. Now speak up.'

'_...Orry. Um... you know what we were saying, about that tear in the shadow realm we're looking for probably being really small? Like, say, the size of a duel monsters card?'_

Joey feels his heart skip. 'Yeah?'

'Well um... it's not the size of a duel monster's card. At all. What _we're sensing is_ just the farthermost reaches of the tear. I...' Joey can hear Yugi biting his lip. Actually _hear_ it. And he's _stammering_. That's never a good thing. '...It's bigger than we thought it would be, Joe. A lot bigger.'

Joey feels his heart sinking into his sneakers. '...How much bigger?'

'_From here... Yami thinks it's probably half a mile wide at the epicentre_.' Yugi says after a moment of silence. '_And there's another third of a mile of highly concentrated power surrounding it. A huge section of the Danube has been poisoned right down to its source. Every single pipe, every single drain every single man hole cover in this part of the city... it's all infected, Joey. The tear in the shadow realm we're looking for is nearly _half a mile_ wide_.'

Joey looks up. Mai looks up. Bakura looks down, twisting his shirt in his hands. Kaiba swears.

'So...' Joey swallowed. 'So in other words, in order to get to that great big, almost-a-mile-wide epicentre, you and 'Kura...

'_Would have to walk through it_.' Yami's voice says, coldly into the speakerphone. '_And there is absolutely no way that even Bakura and Yugi together could survive inside of that. We can't get into the epicentre, Joey. There's no way either of them could make it and that was the only plan we had.'_

'_I think what Yami is trying to say_,' Honda's voice says suddenly, down the line. '_without bein' too delicate about it, is that we're totally screwed_.'


	16. Chapter 16

**Urgh. Seriously, I swear I'm slipping. The ideas for this story worked so well in my head originally but now I just seem to be forging on against all odds even knowing that what I'm saying doesn't entirely work. I hope the occasional faltering of logical consistency won't bother you too much. I'll do better next time, I swear. Also, this chapter's ending kinda hurt more than I was honestly expecting it to. Hm... **

**This chapter was brought to you by Murray Gold's "_Source_", from the _Doctor Who_ Season Four soundtrack. Just felt like getting that fact out there, because this song equals _drama. _**

* * *

**Vienna International Airport, the "Travelling Man Arcade". ****4:41 am**

The empty darkness at the back of the arcade is strange and mesmerising. Usually these places are brightly lit and full of noise. Seeing one so still and quiet makes Mokuba uneasy.

Though really, _quiet_ is the wrong choice of word for this. There are noises out there. The pounding, screeching sounds of things that aren't quite human anymore.

Mokuba comforts himself in the darkness by reminding himself that whatever is going on now, however many monsters there are baying for their blood, and however unlikely their chances of survival may be, it still beats having your soul trapped inside of a playing card, and your body trapped inside of a dark and dirty dungeon. If nothing else, at least he's capable of movement and cognitive thought processes this time.

He works as quickly as he can beneath the control panel at the back of the arcade, fiddling with wires and rerouting links and...

He needs a power source. The whole building is dead.

The heavy sound of something thudding against the marble flood makes Mokuba look up from the panel and wince. 'Marcus!'

A few moments later his body guard reappears, clutching what looks too much like the remains of a broken chair for comfort. Especially since all the chairs in the corridor are attached to the _floor_ with large steel bolts. 'Sir, they're—

'Here. Yeah, I know, Marcus, give me your radio!'

'..What?'

'It's an isolated power source, right? Quickly, hand it over!'

Marcus looks unconvinced, but he reaches out anyway. 'Okay. But I hope you know what you're doing, Mister Kaiba!'

It's as Mokuba is taking the radio from his hand that the first of the monsters appears, crawling around the edges of a driving simulator, tearing the leather fabric of the chair with its thin claws. Marcus immediately leaps to the fore, guarding Mokuba from an oncoming attack, and Mokuba struggles to hold in a scream as the sharp white claws lash across the bodyguard's forehead, and sends him careering into a nearby display.

Marcus falls to the ground with a heavy slam.

Without a moment left to lose, not even to panic, Mokuba rapidly hotwires a few more cables together ripping apart and reconfiguring the radio as easily as if it were a remote control for a toy car. And Mokuba has been building working toy cars since he was eight years old. He staggered to his feet, giving a loud yell as he brought his hand down hard on the control panel.

The arcade erupts in an explosion of light and sound.

* * *

**The Danube River, Shadow Realm Nexus Point. ****4:50 am**

It was a simple plan, in theory.

Somewhat suicidal, yes, but simple.

Yugi needs to close the rift, and to do that he has to touch it, reach into it and close it off with the power inside of his own mind. This intention was complicated by the fact that there was over half a mile of thick, dark magic shielding on either side of the central point. There was no way whatsoever that somebody without any dark magical potential would be able to survive walking through half a mile of shadow magic unshielded. Not alone.

But that was the thing about being Yugi Mutou. He was never really alone. Not even when they're stuck in a city with no telephone connection. The slightest signal they'd been able to get a few minutes earlier had been to Joey's cell, and Joey was in the same city. And now even those calls weren't getting through. They knew this because Yami had been bashing the keys of Téa's phone for the last twenty minutes now, and was still receiving no signal.

By the time Joey and the others have caught up ('Sorry we're late, we got a little distracted, what with the residents of the Local Zoo all being determined to drag us into the Shadow Realm. And _there's_ something you don't say every day...'), the darkness is cracking the paving slabs, stinging their tongues, and there are shadows of things that are no longer mortal clambering over the walls of the surrounding terraces. The wall reaches upwards farther than they can see –no hope of getting in that way, then...

'It kind of looks like that Pyramid of Light thing, only, you know. Not light,' Tristan shivers. 'Remember?'

'How could I forget?' Kaiba mutters. 'The dome cost a fortune to repair. You're saying this is a similar phenomenon?'

'Basically, yes...' Yugi nods. Actually there's not much about this scenario that they haven't dealt with before in some shape or form, he thinks. From the people transforming into monsters, to the shadows of darkness creeping across the land, to this strange pyramid... The only thing that's missing is a game of Duel Monsters.

And contrary to popular belief, not everything evil in the universe can be held back by a game of Duel Monsters. A card game certainly isn't going to get them out of this one. Yugi reaches out a hand towards the glistening wall of power and energy before him, feeling cold and afraid and almost hopeless. Touching it doens't help. It's like sinking his hand into cold rice. He pulls back, shivering. 'Oh-kay, not good.'

'Mai, you're bleeding.' Bakura says quietly, and Mai curses as if she hadn't noticed, wiping at the cut on her arm.

'It's nothing. Casanova here held on a little tight when we were running from those monsters.'

'I was keeping ya from toppling into the river!' Joey mutters. 'Heck, if it weren't for that little trick we pulled with Yami's real name, we'd probably be dead by now.'

'Yami's real name?' Téa frowns.

'Yeah. Apparently it works,' Kaiba says, coldly. 'Not that I especially _enjoy_ feeling as if somebody is trying to rip my teeth out just because I spoke a single word.'

'We used it to scare off the monster,' Mai explains, gingerly brushing her fingers across the wound in her arm, dabbing at the blood with her fortunately black gloves. 'Just like Yugi used it to take control of the monsters before... That wouldn't be any use to us now, by any chance, would it?' Mai looks at Yugi hopefully. 'I mean, could you take control of these monsters again? Like you did before? Those ones back there were willing to die for you, surely...'

Yugi shakes his head rapidly, interrupting Mai's sentence. 'Sorry, but no. Last time I did that, it felt as if my head was gonna explode. That it even _worked_ before was mostly because they still had enough human in them to respond positively to the light, and now...' He trails off; not wanting to admit that there's so little left that might be done for these people, consumed by the Shadow Realm...

'I don't suppose it'll work on something like _this_, anyway,' Joey sighs uncomfortably. 'Man, how're we gonna get out of this one?'

'I don't know,' Yugi says, trying to ignore the anxious confusion on his friends' faces as he speaks. 'I could try, I mean, maybe I could get through it...'

'Don't you dare,' Yami snaps. 'Don't even _think_ about running into that thing, Yugi, you'll never survive.'

'Yami, we're not going to survive _anyway_. At least this way we have a chance.'

'He's right, Yami, I could help.' Bakura suggested uneasily. 'I'm light magic in origin too, aren't I? So I might be able to reinforce Yugi's ability.'

'Bakura, I—' Yami paused, sighing and running his temples. 'Look the offer is appreciated, but it's still impossible, even both of you don't have the combined energy to breach this kind of dark shielding. I'm not sacrificing you both for nothing.'

'Forgive me for interrupting this little debate,' Kaiba says evenly. 'But we _do_ still have a plane that may be capable of flight. We could still get out of here.'

The looks Kaiba receives in respond to this suggestion, Yugi thinks, could floor a mutant pachyderm. Kaiba merely shrugs nonchalantly, as if their disapproval means nothing to him. And in truth, he isn't making a bad suggestion.

'I don't think that's really an option now, do you, Kaiba?' Téa says, with more firmness and certainty than she must surely feel. 'Even if we _could_ get out of here, what about the people? What about the rest of the planet, this... this _thing_ is just going to keep spreading until everyone in the world ends up like the monsters here; just like _Samantha_. Besides whatever this is, we may already be... infected with it.' She shudders at that thought, realising it's the one they've all been pondering since they got here, but have not quite dared to admit.

'Téa's right, Kaiba,' Yugi says uneasily. 'There's no way into this. And now there's no way out, either.'

'Just... just think about his for a moment,' Téa continues, sounding more and more certain with every word. 'We've never been beaten like this before. We've never backed down. We've faced darkness just as strong as this one and we've _won_. And there's only a few of us here, right?' She looked up into the darkness, eyes shining. 'When there were only four of us, standing against the shadows, we _won_... We can pull people back from the Shadow Realm together.'

'You still believe that,' Kaiba says. But his tone is more one of quiet acceptance than of scorn or derision. As if he's run out of contempt.

'Why shouldn't I?' Téa snaps. 'We've done it before, we'll do it again!'

Téa is looking at Yugi now, eyes bright, arms folded tightly over her tracksuit top. She is beautiful and shivering and terrified and so very, very brave, and Yugi understand why even Kaiba thought it so important that she be brought here. That she be able to fight with them.

Téa hadn't needed to come here. She could've stayed away, in New York, where it was at least reasonably safe. She could've avoided all of this. All of them could have... but they hadn't. They had come here, in the dead of night. They walked into the shadows because Yugi called for them. Yami's eyes are as cold as a winter's dusk, probably as he ponders the same things as Yugi. In spite of himself, Yugi finds himself smiling at Yami's determination.

Still. They need a miracle, Yugi thinks again, while wrapping one arm around Yugi and another around Téa's sleeve, or else an extremely fast and heavily armoured vehicle capable of breaching dark magical defences. Shame they can't summon an X Head Cannon into reality, as they could in a virtual realm. Heck, if faith and fury alone could quell the darkness building all across the world right now, then this problem would have been solved before it even began. Heck, even just Yami's name has the power to...

The power to...

He exchanges a look with his other, a glimmer of understanding passing between them like a knife cutting paper.

Yami looked up a glimmer of something that might be hope in his eyes. 'Wait... hold on.' Everyone falls silent under his sudden glare. 'Mai, you're saying that my _name_ still has power here? Amongst all of this darkness?'

'Well it must do,' Mai mutters. 'I mean, we're still alive, aren't we?'

'A-and what use is that, exactly?' Bakura asks, nervously. 'I mean... Yami, all the power of your name usually does is cause _explosions_, or other forms of property damage.'

Yami doesn't answer for a moment. He's looking at Yugi and smiling that strange, hopeful smile which people usually associate with an almost-lost Duels that he's about to turn on their heads and win anyway. 'Maybe so... but if we can use it differently, then I might just have an idea.'

A rustling like the sound of a flock of birds dying in symphony fills the air and everyone shudders, feeling the darkness deep inside of them. The shield before them is bubbling and buckling, and for just a moment, Yugi allows himself the illusion that maybe the cracks weaving their way across the huge shields surface are a good thing, a sign that it's breaking down of its own accord... Except that he knows that can't be true. The cracks aren't cracks at all – they're veins, expanding as the shield slowly grows, like the aftermath of an explosion bubbling outwards.

'Whatever it is, we have to do it now,' Kaiba hissed. 'Because our time just ran out.'

* * *

**New York, 9th Avenue Television Centre. ****4:15 am**

'Ah.' Marik says, as his sister quite calmly (and without acknowledging her brothers' bemused expressions) picks the lock of the building and opens the doors wide into an empty silence of reception decks and chairs. Of course, where _else_ would you find the epicentre of dark magic?'

'_Marik_.'

'I'm just saying, sister; there's something ironic about this. The core... you're certain that it's here?'

'I... don't know.' Ishizu admitted, frowning slightly, as if she had only just realised the fact herself. The darkness was pushing in and clouding her senses. Finding even a nexus point of darkness in all of this was the equivalent of finding a specific, slightly sharper needle in a haystack consisting entirely of other needles. She had walked the entirety of 9th Avenue in a half-daze, following the faintest of tickles of light in the corner of her brain, _willing_ the millennium necklace to give her some direction, some kind of clue as to where to turn. She wasn't sure if the Millennium Necklace has anything to do with her finding her way here, but something had certainly drawn them in this direction.

The television studio was silent and abandoned – strange, really, given that a news corporation should honestly be staffed throughout the night, most likely with several film crews working at the same time. Yet not even a security guard had blocked their entrance to the premises. In fact, Ishizu could've sworn she heard a frightened whimper from within the booth gate besides the car park entrance.

Then, in the darkness, something _moves. _

It happens very quickly. Faster than any human being can think, even one who could once see the future. One moment there is only darkness and something shuffling uneasily in the absence of light. The next there is a shuddering breath, and Ishizu is slammed onto her back, something clawing at her throat, cutting off the air so efficiently that she can't even scream. Odion is crying out in rage and frustration, and Marik is screaming her name. There is a glisten of steel as he unsheathes the Millennium Rod in one quick movement.

The moment passes quickly. There is rage, noise, and light; a burst of familiar magic tingles on her tongue as Marik leaps quickly between her, and their oncoming assailant, trying to rip it's hands away from her throat. The air shudders as he sends out a psychic flash (she can think of no other possible word for it) so powerful it would crush the brain of any normal human being. The arms clinging to Ishizu's neck loosen, and she pushes quickly, forcing the body away. It lands besides her with a heavy, dead thud.

* * *

**The Danube River, Shadow Realm Nexus Point. ****4:53 am**

'Bakura,' Yugi said quietly, still staring up at the bubbling wall of darkness before them, with all of them trying to ignore the shuddering beneath their feet, and the fact that they are so close to it. 'I need to you do something for me. It's quite a big something, though, so if you don't want...'

'Just say it, Yugi, anything.'

Yugi bites his bottom lip to suppress an inappropriate smile. Because that's _so_ like Ryou. 'I need you to contact the other you.'

There's a pause of silence. Someone drops a torch. Bakura squeaks a response: 'I'm sorry?'

'I know it's a lot to ask, and I'm sorry, but... Our phone reception doesn't work anymore and we need to get a message to the outside world. You're the only one that can do it. I need you to get a signal to your other self, and then I need him to get that message to Duke, and then Duke... well, it'll make sense. Hopefully. If it works. Do you understand?'

Bakura continues to stare at him, bewildered, 'Of course, but I don't see.'

'When you hear the message, you'll understand.'

'You're sayin' we should _trust_ that guy? Joey mutters uneasily.

Yes. He might be of questionable morality, Yugi mutters, 'but he won't want Ryou dead. Trust me, he'll take the message. Ryou?'

Bakura pauses for one long, trembling moment, and then takes a deep breath. Yugi knows what happened the last time his other self had been allowed inside of Bakura's head; he remembers the pain and fear in Bakura's eyes when he thinks about the monsters he killed, using his other self's power. The thought of returning the signal is very painful to him. 'Alright, Yugi. I'll try.'

Yugi takes hold of Bakura's arm, in a vague gesture of comfort. 'It's okay. We'll be right here the whole time. You don't have to be afraid of him.'

'I'm not,' Bakura says far too quickly. Then he pauses, glimpsing at the growing wall of darkness besides them, and smiles faintly. 'Well... not so much. Not anymore.'

He reaches out a hand to take Yugi's somehow knowing that this is what they have to do.

* * *

**03:50am, New York, 9th Avenue Television Centre". ****4:16 am**

There is no question as to whether or not the creature is still alive.

In fact, judging from the way it flopped so suddenly to the ground, with a bone crunching thud, it had probably been as good as dead long before Marik got to it. Now it's lying in the corridor in the middle of the darkness. Its fingers curled up into insect-tight balls. Ishizu sits there for a moment, catching her breath and staring at the figure lying prone on the floor before them. Odion's hand on her shoulder is a warm and constant reassurance.

'He's human.' Marik says, speaking so calmly you wouldn't believe that a few moments ago he had been brandishing the Millennium rod and whispering ancient, cold incantations to freeze the monster in its tracks. Now the being lies prone before them, hands curled into claws, face trapped in an expression of paralysed rage. 'Or he was, at any rate. That much is clear... must've been one of the night security.'

'A human, infected by the darkness.' Odion said darkly, hands curling into fists. 'He's probably amongst the first to undergo such a transformation outside of Yugi's location.'

'But he's dead.' Marik frowns in confusion, I hardly did anything. 'All I meant was to shock him away, I—' and then he seems to notice the man's hands curled tightly around his own throat. He and Ishizu realise what must have happened almost simultaneously. They realise what the man had been trying to do, when he lunged at them out of the darkness. 'Oh.'

'He tried to take his own life,' Ishizu whispered, shivering, understanding coming to her so quickly that it's almost painful. 'This human must have been one of the purer ones.' One such as Yugi; one who couldn't tolerate the corruption of the dark magic spreading steadily across the planet; who was twisted and terrified by the sensation growing like a cancer from within.

Dark magic may have been ugly, but it was not by nature evil... And yet to one such as this, with nothing but light within their body, it was pure poison. This man had been lunging at them not just to attack, but to beg for his own destruction, to plead for relief...

Marik had given him his wish.

'Then we were correct,' Ishizu says, trying to shake away the coldness in her gut (honestly, she's seen worse than this in her time). 'The darkness is spreading. The fear and rage we see outside is only the beginning.'

The man's face was pale, his skin seeming to have been stretched taught around the veins and arteries of his neck. His eyes bulged within his head.

Could this be a fragment of what had been happening in Europe? Were Yugi and the others facing down creatures such as this one? Humans turned into tools of darkness? Ishizu shuddered at the idea of Yugi ending up just like this poor mortal, and pushed the thought out of her mind urgently.

They need to find the recording studio. Something tells her this, so clearly and plainly that it might as well have been a spoken voice.

Ishizu decides that, spooky voice in her mind or no, they have no choice but to trust it, and begins to walk blindly into the darkness, stopping only to reach down and carefully close the eyelids of the man lying on the ground before them.

Ishizu mentally squints against the darkness swelling in her brain as they move deeper into the building. Momentarily, she finds herself cursing the Millennium necklace for getting her involved in this. For only the briefest of instances, Ishizu finds herself hating her own heritage.

The feeling pass quickly as she reminds herself that that is merely the darkness talking; the ugliness inside of her being brought to the surface by external shadows. Her brothers are experiencing similar sensations, no doubt. Particularly Marik, who had not stopped shivering since they arrived in New York, and was covering up his anxiety with bravado and false courage. He slowly reaches out and took her hand in both of his, allowing her to draw strength from him.

It was all that he could do, and Ishizu was grateful for it.

'Whatever your plan, Ishizu, we'll follow you. You understand that, right?'

Comforting as her brother's faith is, Ishizu still can't help but feel that she is walking them into a death trap.

* * *

Yami Bakura's first reaction to the unexpected intrusion is "What the _fuck_?" Coupled with a healthy dose of "get the hell out of here!" It's been a long time since he was on the receiving end of a direct mind-to-mind message and seeing his host body standing before him in the glare of his subconscious all of a sudden is not a little surprising.

'_Ah, it worked. Um... hello.' _

And yet, Bakura Ryou stands there before him, a nervous, shadowed outline in the depths of Yami Bakura's mind, gazing at him through deep, brown eyes. For all the world he looks exactly as he does in real life, if with the faintest outline of white surrounding his body. He hadn't thought the weed had the power to do something so massive...

'And what exactly are _you_ doing in here?' Yami-Bakura mutters, his tone of voice more amused and intrigued than irritated. It's not like the speck can do any damage to him, after all... Not really.

'_I-it seems to me that I have about as much right to be in your mind as you do in mine, Other Me.'_

'Don't call me that.' Bakura grunts. He can't think of anything else to say. He looks his Other up and down appraisingly. The image of his small host stands before him in his mind, not trembling or shuddering or anything of the sort. There is no fear in his eyes or actions. He is merely standing there, looking a lot more firm and composed than Bakura knows Ryou honestly feels. 'What do you _want_, Surface?'

'_To deliver a message from Yugi,' _Ryou says. '_To Duke Devlin_.'

How convenient. Yami-Bakura smirks faintly. 'Oh, and you want me to pass along this message?'

'Obviously.'

Ha. What is he, Yami Bakura thinks, irritably; a shadow-powered email service? 'And why would I do _that_, little host? What incentive could you give me?'

'_How about this: if you don't then everybody will die. We're in Vienna in case you didn't know_,' Ryou Bakura explains calmly. '_The shadows are so deep here you can't find the light anymore. We're trapped here and we're going to die. And then the rest of Europe is going to be transformed into a shadow hell. And then they'll probably all die as well. You don't want that. Not really. You're not Zorc.'_

'Really?' Bakura mutters, testing the waters a bit. He wants to see how much his host understands him, he wants to know... 'Fair enough. You're not much use to me dead.' Bakura reaches out and runs a hand through his host's not-quite-real hair and sneers. 'Alright then, little Ryou, what is it you'd like me to say?'

* * *

**Domino City Airport, 10:53 am**

'What the hell—?!'

The air catches in Duke's throat, mostly because Bakura has just grabbed his arm and is clinging on with all the fierceness of an angry, white haired lobster. Serenity yelps in confusion, clinging to her seat and frowning.

Duke grunts, extracting his arm 'Gah! Bakura, wha—?!'

'Shut up.' Bakura snap, and when Due glimpses at him to yell some more, he notices the spirit's eyes are dull and dark and that his mind is perhaps not quite in the same place as the rest of him.

'W-what's happening?' Serenity whispers.

'If I knew I'd tell ya, 'Ren—'

'I said shut up, mortal.' Bakura snaps again. I'm trying to take a message here.'

'...A message.' Duke gives Serenity an uneasy smile. 'From who, exactly?'

Bakura doesn't answer. Not even to shout an explicit. He just keeps staring, as if looking into something deep, dark, and endless. Serenity stays quiet, trembling in the seat behind them. The silence seems to go on for as long as it takes the grey storm clouds overhead to cross the sky and vanish into the horizon. The visitors to the airport sweep past them thoughtlessly.

Then Bakura looks up, blinks ad twists his neck in the manner of someone sorting out a cramp. He looks at Duke. 'Alright, speck. My little host body has a message for you here. And like it or not, you're going to listen to it.'

* * *

**Vienna International Airport, the "Travelling Man Arcade". ****4:51 am**

Six minutes.

It had been exactly six minutes since the monsters first entered the arcade, seeking desperately for the source of warmth and light that was Mokuba's body. It had also, Mokuba thinks, probably been the longest six minutes of his life. He glimpses upwards to see Marcus; deprived of the chair he'd been using to defend his master from the onslaught of monsters, he had been using his bare hands to keep them from going any further. That he'd kept it up as long as he had is a minor miracle.

No longer.

Mokuba hisses as electricity burns his palms; sparking from the haphazard system of wires and controls he had desperately hotwiring together. It's ridiculously unsafe, but still better than having those monsters claws around his throat. The second the lights in the arcade went up, the creatures had screamed and scattered, and Mokuba saw exactly what Yugi had meant about their being moths to a flame. Drawn into their own destruction, they kept batting and shrieking as they clawed at the activated machinery all around them. Arcade games, motorcycle machines, shrieking dance mats, glittering, flickering toy booths, and the constant, screaming noises that to any normal human being would be nothing more than irritating. To these monsters the pain is terrible and intoxicating. Mokuba winces as the creatures scatter, shrieking in pain. It's hard to think of them as once being human, with their twisted, deformed bodies and angry, confused eyes, and yet somehow, Mokuba felt sorry for them.

This sympathy only deepened as he reached out and flicked the final switch controlling the arcade's power grid. There was a spasm of light and electricity, and then the building was bathed in light.

Mokuba sits on the floor for a second, gathering his breath in the suddenly noisy arcade. The machines came alive when he reactivated the power. Both this room, and a couple of adjacent stores, are glowing with a thousand coloured lights. The sound of an old pop song is trembling in the speakers.

_He_ did this, Mokuba realises, all with just a few emergency batteries and his guardian's radio. It's hardly the most technically accomplished of his achievements, but he couldn't feel more pleased with himself if he tried. Maybe that's just the adrenaline talking. Seto will be proud of him.

Mokuba snaps his head up suddenly realising he had forgotten about Marcus. He gets to his feet, staggering slightly, realising that the monsters had been clawing at his skin even as he worked furiously on the control panel. He finds Marcus within seconds, lying behind a bank of computers. There is too much blood on the floor – dark red and human, and patches of white skin, and...

'Oh.'

The word emerges from his mouth quietly, but it seems louder than anything else. Even louder than the jaunty music coming from the speakers.

The adrenaline dies away as quickly as it came. He's dead. Mokuba knows without having to check, but he does anyway, a numb sensation crawling over his bones as he reaches out a hand to his guardian's body, searching for a pulse, knowing he won't find one. Knowing there is no real sense in looking, but feeling the need to anyway because that, he tells himself, is just what his brother would do. To a Kaiba there is no such thing as surrender, not even when things seem more hopeless than they ever have before.

Marcus is dead, and the last thing he did was pray that Mokuba knew what he was doing. Until this very moment, Mokuba would've promised him that he did. But now...

Now Mokuba Kaiba is fifteen years old, and he is alone in an empty city. In a brilliantly bright arcade, with monsters outside, a body inside, and his brother seems so far away that he might as well be back in Tokyo.

Mokuba sucks in a breath, and somehow, using every ounce of willpower his brother ever taught him, keeps it from becoming a sob when he lets it out again.

Kaiba's do _not_ surrender to something as silly as their petty emotions.


	17. Chapter 17

**Starting to approach the finale now, I think. No, really this time. These last few scenes are turning out to be rather tough to write, as is usually the case with finales. I really appreciate all of the kind and helpful reviews you guys have been giving me, and I hope the finale lives up to any hopes you may have. I can but try. **

**This chapter brought to you by "**_**Waiting on the Tablaphone**_**", again, from the **_**Doctor Who**_** soundtrack. **

**So... let's go save the world, I guess. **

* * *

"_We all long to belong, we all need to be needed  
Loneliness is our disease, still we bite the hand that feeds  
Where did we go wrong?  
Insecure and self-sufficient building up walls instead of bridges  
Let our lonely hearts collide, we're meant to live this life together__…"_

- Krystal Meyers, _Together_.

* * *

**Domino City Interchange, 11:02 am**

In the middle of a busy city interchange, beneath a sky too dark for comfort; with a ranting, former-evil-spirit on one side and nervous teenager on the other, Duke Devlin is making a phone call.

Actually he's making several phone calls. Most of them aren't getting through – especially the people who he knows are located fairly close to Europe. The closer people are to the epicentre of the disaster, the harder it is for signals and messages to penetrate the wall of shadow energy which are currently swamping the planet.

He doens't stop to think about what they're doing, because if he does, he knows he'll start realising just how ridiculously insane and implausible this plan is, and if he realises that, then it'll be doomed from the very beginning.

'My other self is an idiot, you know.' Yami-Bakura says unhelpfully.

Duke ignores the spirit's goading. He hasn't got time for Yami-Bakura's attachment complex with his Other Self right now. All Duke knows is that Ryou was talking right into Yami Bakura's head not a few minutes ago and now...

'You've been making phonecalls ever since we left the airport and you've had... what? One reply? Out of fifty? Give it _up_, Devlin, this is never going to work.'

Duke continues to ignore him. As unlikely as it seems a plan is slowly falling into place. It's fairly simple, really. The only difficulty is that _he's_ the one who has to make it work, and Duke figures that nobody could blame him for feeling a little nervous about that. It isn't like he's making all these calls to arrange a business meeting after all. Not exactly anyway.

Serenity sits, shuffling uneasily in the seat behind them, worrying at her bottom lip. But her hands are clenched into light fists of determination. He'd explained the plan to her in a rush as they ran back to the car, and he's sure she only half understands exactly what they're doing, and yet she goes along with him anyway. Because she trusts him, he supposes. That thought leaves a warm feeling in Devlin's stomach, and he tries to crush it down by imagining all the myriad ways in which Joey Wheeler could kill him for it. Besides, they have bigger things to worry about. He hisses as yet another number he needs turns out not to be in his phonebook.

'Serenity, you wouldn't have the number for a guy named _Valon_, would you?

'Valon?'Serenity frowns, digging out her mobile phone. 'Um, wait a second, I think... Yes, Mai gave it to me just a few months back. She said it was for emergencies only. _Big_ emergencies.'

'Hm. Monsters in Europe, freaky, stormy skies in Tokyo, Bakura daring to step inside of Yami Bakura's head... Yeah, I'd say that counts as big. Hand me your phone? Thanks.'

Yami Bakura hisses irritably. 'Oh, for the love of Ra, are you mortals even listening to me?'

'No, because all you're doing is trying to convince us this is a bad idea, which we already damn well know.' Duke snaps. 'It's still the only idea we have. _You're_ the one who gave me the message in the first place.'

'Only because my ridiculously little pet practically begged me to do so. I still think it's a foolish idea. If it fails then wrecking all of Europe will be the least of our problems.'

'Look, the way things are going there's gonna be nothing left of Europe anyway. I know Bakura, there's no way he'd go inside of your head unless he thought it was really important. If this is the only plan we have, then we're going to have to run with it... Unless you want to sit around and wait until the monsters Ryou told us about start crawling out of the drainpipes _here_ as well as in Vienna.'

'Given the options, I think I'll take my chances with the crazy plan. I'm calling Valon now, Duke. Here.' Serenity says, handing over her mobile phone. Duke takes it without looking. Duke waits, listening to the "engaged" tone chiming for a few moments – _Damn_ _it_. 'Another dead end. But isn't that guy meant to be in Australia? You can't get much further away from Vienna than Australia!'

'Oh, here,' Yami Bakura snatches the phone out of Duke's hands before he can protest. There's a moment, a flickering of dark sparks making the entire inside of the car prickle with static, then Yami Bakura hands the phone back and Duke takes it suspiciously, handling it delicately as if it might explode. '...What did you do?'

'A focussed dark magical energy field,' Bakura speaks slowly and evenly, as if sounding it out for a five year old. 'The same thing I did before when I appeared in this car. To put it in a way your primitive mind will understand: its _magic_. You should be able to call just about anyone now and the dark energy won't stop you. It _will_ make us a lot more obvious to whatever is going on out there, but if that's a risk you're prepared to take...'

Duke stares at the phone in his hand uneasily. 'But why? You think this is a crazy idea.'

A smirk. 'I still do. Crazy, and potentially _very_ destructively entertaining. Besides as you say, _what other choice is there_? Let's just agree that you owe me a favour from now on. With witnesses.' He leers at Serenity. She scowls right back at him. Her brother's sister, right.

Duke looks Yami Bakura squarely in eyes that tell him no thank you is necessary –and to not give one at all would be preferred. Besides, he has no doubt whatsoever that Yami Bakura will take him up on that favour at a later date. So instead he turns backwards in his chair and hands the phone to Serenity. 'Okay. Serenity, I need you to help me out. Keep calling the numbers Bakura gave us; I'll call at the same time. At least o_ne_ of us will have to get through.'

'Me? But what do I say?'

'Just tell them what I told you, and the rest of the work should do itself. You know what to do. We have to get moving here.'

Duke hisses, twisting the steering wheel, and turning sharply into a side road leading back to the city. 'Oh, wonderful, wherever we're going we're taking the scenic route,' Yami Bakura hisses. 'And exactly where _are_ you taking us anyway?'

'Kaiba Corporation,' Duke says. 'We need to get there before Rebecca accesses the global network, that gives us twenty minutes tops. We're taking a shortcut.' And before either of them can argue or ask questions, he presses the accelerator and speeds off at a ridiculous pace through the empty streets of Domino.

* * *

_Ring ring, ring ring, ring ring, ring ring. _

* * *

**10:10 am, Hong Kong Central Film Studio, Trailer of Vivian Wong. **

'Alright, alright, I'm _answering, I'm answering_... Urgh. _Damn_ these agents, don't they ever stop asking for money? Hellooo, this is Miss Vivian Wong. I'm sorry but I'm very busy right now, I'm about to have my eyebrows done and...'

'Oh? Duke _who_? Sorry, you'll have to refresh my memory, honey; I meet with so many high class businessmen these days. Oh! Of _course_, darling Yugi's little friend! How've you been, sweetie? How's Yugi? Have you seen him lately? I _do_ keep meaning to call but after our last meeting you know things might not be entirely...

'Oh, that's sweet of you, but really I've been stuck here with nothing to do except look out of windows at those awful clouds all day. This weather has completely ruined our filming schedule. Really is terrible, isn't it? I mean—

'What? Ah, so you didn't call to socialise? Oh well. I—'

'Hon, have you been _looking_ out of the windows? I know there's something going on.

'...Well _clearly_ it's some kind of cyclone, or tornado or something... Of course I know those two are the same thing! Honestly, stop being a smart-mouth; what did you call me for, anyway?

'You need me to _what_? Mister Devlin are you absolutely—

'What? _Yugi_ s _right in the middle of all this_?! You mean he's in Europe? Right _now_?

'Oh good grief, I... what? So wait, this thing that's going down in Vienna, the reports on all the news channels, you say that it's to do with _magic_? Oh, Yugi, you foolish little hero, what on earth—!

'In a minute, Devlin, I'm trying to build up a suitable dramatic atmosphere here!

'No, I honestly don't have the foggiest what that means either, but it _sounds_ serious! What's that? Well of _course_ I can do it, just you _watch_, honey. The director –you know, he's the same guy who worked on Sunset Beach in the nineties?– he's _completely_ got the hots for me. Trust me, all I have to do is bat my eyelids at him a little and he'll roll right over. What I want to know is _why_?

'Really? You can do that? How'd you get access to Kaiba Corps main—

'You honestly think that's going to work? What's the matter with you, Mister Devlin, is this meant to be some kind of a prank call?

'Oh... _fine_, I'll trust you for now, for Yugi's sake, but I warn you if this is some kind of joke...

'Right, got it. I'll be there. Though I don't have the foggiest how you're going to—oh, you're right, I'll think of something. I'll call back when I get there!'

_*Click.* _

'Vanessa! Vanessa, honey, hold off on that facial, I have more urgent matters to deal with! And where's my emergency going-out-in-a-thunderstorm-waterproof-make-up kit?!'

* * *

**04:10 am, Blue Estate, Cape Town, Australia. **

'Ngh... H'lo?

'Whuh? Wheeler? Hang on who...? _That_ Serenity? It's _four in the bloody morning here_, how'd you get this number? Mai? Damn, I told her not to spread it.

'Look sorry, but I think I'm justified in being a little grouchy when some lass in Japan calls me at four in the morning on _reverse charge. _Some of us have jobs, you know. No, no, I'm sorry just... Urgh, I'm a total git first thing in the morning is all. What do you want?

'In Vienna? Sure who could miss the news? Mai's there? _All_ of them are there?

'What? Oh be serious, kid, what do you think _I c_an possibly do?

'Oh, don't you use the blackmail card on me, Wheeler, I know your brother's game and be damned if you ain't got his genes! I'm just _saying_ I'm nothing special, there's no way I can get into a TV studio. What about my association with Doma? What does that have to do with—

'Oh, right.

'I... (sigh). Okay, look, this isn't gonna be a walk on the beach, but I'll try. Just you make sure that Devlin sends those emails _right_ now, okay? I am _not_ walking into Canberra film studio only to be kicked out on my ass by people thinking I'm a lunatic ranting about the end of the world and monsters in the streets if Vienna. S'alright. Fine. And you _owe me_, kid.'

_*Click*_

Bloody teenagers, four in the morning... The things I do for you, Mai Valentine.

* * *

**11:20 am, The Turtle Game Store, Tokyo, Japan. **

'Hello this is the Turtle Game Store, how may I help you? Oh, Serenity, hello dear. I take I know what this call is about? Yes, I know, I've been watching the news. And judging from this phone call you're about to tell me that I was _right_ to worry when Yugi sent me that rather rushed email the other day telling me to warn Joey that he may have to activate the Phone-Tree?

'Oh... Oh, good grief, those boy s are just _trying_ to give me a pacemaker failure aren't they?

'No, no, I'm alright, Serenity, just tell me what is going on. This chaos in Europe, its Yugi's doing?

'No, of course I don't think he started it. Dear, why would I...? Oh, Yami Bakura. He's been giving it the lip again, I expect. Just ignore him, sweetheart, it's what I always do. He's like a moth to a candle light, eventually he'll just—

'Sorry, sorry, rambling. I'm old, unhealthy, and concerned for my grandson, it's a very dangerous combination. What do you need? Or rather what do Yugi and Yami need?

'Oh no, Serenity, I appreciate that you felt the need to warn me. Which is a damn sight more than my own _grandsons_ thought to do, honestly, when they get back here...

'Well as it happens, yes, I _do_ have contacts in the Middle East. Yes, and Russia. And a couple in South Africa, and Europe, of course. Assuming my old colleagues didn't rip up my number in disgust when I published that paper on Duel Monsters in ancient Egypt with Professor Hawkins that is. Funny story that actually, Serenity, I'll have to tell you sometime. But what do you need me to do with them?'

'Oh... well I'm not sure my influence extends to _broadcasting_, but I'll do my best, you can count on that.'

* * *

**09:05 pm, Pensacola, Florida, Industrial Illusions Headquarters. **

'_Greetings! You've reached the Main office of Maximilian Pegasus, I'm sorry but I'm unavailable for comment right now, so if you're a journalist assume I said absolutely nothing on the subject of my upcoming deals with the Schrodinger Corporation, and if you're anyone else who thinks they may be worth my time, then please leave a message after the tone.' _

*_**Beep**_.*

'_Oh, damn it, only Maximilian Pegasus would be out doing business during a world crisis. Ah... Mister Pegasus? This is Duke Devlin, the head of your partner firm. Now this isn't really a business call, but as you may have noticed, we have a serious incident taking place down in—'_

*_**Beepclick**_*.

'Why Mister Devlin, what a pleasure it is to hear your voice during this difficult time! I apologise, I've had so many prank calls lately that I've just been letting everything go to the answering machine. You have need of me?

'Yugi, you say? That does seem serious.

'But of course, with half of my employees calling in absent and the other half simply AWOL, I had begun to suspect that something rather monumental was up with the world order. So far I appear to be unaffected, as is the case with Croquet. And my tea lady, thank goodness. I honestly don't know how I'd manage all of this without a strong coffee and the occasional spritzer... Yes, I _do_ watch the news.

'He is? Well, that hardly surprises me; it is so like him to be stuck in the middle of all of something like this. Oh? That's a very particular request, Dukey boy. And who, pray tell, is this Yami fellow? No, no, of course, first things first. You say you need access to my satellites? And that you wish to coordinate with... Now really, Duke, I appreciate your novelty; after all that's why I sponsored your business, but do you honestly think Kaiba Corporation would ever agree to that? You know of our little rivalry–'

'...What do you mean they've already _given_ permission for the link up? From Kaiba himself?

'I see. And you need me to negotiate with Siegfried for Schrodinger Corp, correct? Goodness, what on earth are we _planning_ here, some kind of worldwide military coup?

'That's quite a claim. Am I sensing a hint of desperation in this strategy?

'I thought so. Hmmm well it's just lucky for you that your partnership and skills have been such a contribution to the Industrial Illusions Empire, my boy. Of course I'll see what I can do. Oh, and Duke? Try not to let the boy do anything _too_ overtly heroic. I know what he's like, after all, and strangely enough, I find that I'm starting to prefer him in one piece... so to speak.

'Of course. Good day, Mister Devlin. We shall speak again soon, I hope. Provided that the world doens't come to an end within the next few hours, that is.'

*_**Click**_.*

* * *

**10:15 pm, Miami, Schrodinger Corp. Family ****Mansion. **

'Well, sure, Mister Pegasus but I don't see why... Really? _Kaiba Corp_? No way! You're sure it was really _Kaiba_ who gave the agreement? Because the last I checked, he said that if our company ever came within a hair's breadth of him then he'd—

'Oh. No, my brother isn't here, but don't worry about it, sir. It might actually be better if he doens't get too involved with this. I mean, it's Kaiba Corp, you know?

You've got it, sir. I'm sure I can handle the transfer myself. It's just a simple matter of talking to a few people. Do you think—I mean...

Well, Yugi, and all the others, they'll be okay, right?

'Um, sorry, I know that's not very professional of me, but whatever's going on in Europe right now, I seems pretty whacked out, I'm just concerned.

'Sure I trust you, sir. Not that I honestly believed I'd be saying that five years ago. Um. No offence. Okay. I'm heading for our Industrial department now. Shouldn't take me more than twenty minutes to get the whole thing online.

'Okay, then I'll have it ready in _ten_ minutes. Leon Schrodinger out.'

* * *

**12:00 pm, Nevada Desert. **

'Ah hello? Yes that would be this trailer, wait one moment and I'll fetch her. Rebecca, dear?'

'On it, Gramps, thanks... Hey there, whatever this is it had _better_ be very, very, very _important_. Yugi? Yugi is that you?! God, it had better be you, _please_ let it be you!

'Oh, it's just you, Duke... No, sorry, it's just I've been getting all freaked out about him over here! Have you heard from them? I just know they're right in the middle of all this, I can feel it. I can't get any phone calls through: there's a lot of signal interference and I'm starting to think that's _not_ because I'm in a trailer in the middle of nowhere. In fact, now that I think about it, how the heck are _you_ managing to make a phone call?'

'Urgh... Magic, _again_? Why does it always come back to the freaky stuff? Yugi better not be getting his soul ripped out of his body again! What the heck is—Wait what?

'You're going to do a _link up_ between Kaiba Corp, Schrodinger Corp, and I2's satellite systems and connect them to the worldwide broadcasting network? Are you _serious_? That's like trying to instigate a merger between Microsoft PC and the Macbook! It's never gonna happen in a trillion years!

'They've _already_ agreed? Holy crud, now I _know_ I'm hallucinating. Next you'll be telling me there are mutant elephants in the streets of—

'Oh never _mind_, Duke, _what_ is all this about?

'Seriously? No, wait, explain that again, and don't kiddify your data for pities sakes, I _have_ a degree, my adolescent brain isn't gonna explode from the intensity of your great wisdom. In fact I probably know more than you do.

'Oh. Sorry again. I'm just tense that's all and... Well, what you're suggesting is pretty crazy. I'm not sure it's possible to sync up so many different networks like that, not without international clearance...

'I never said I _couldn't_ do it, but I'm going to have to call in a few favours.

'Heh, you're asking whether or not _I'm_ up to date on the latest internet software? Devlin, I'm sitting in the most kitted out trailer in all of Nevada. And there are a _lot_ of trailers in Nevada.

'What? Okay, I get what you're saying, but what good is that if we can't even patch a simple phone call? There's too much interference.

'Oh, wait, I get it! Yeah, that just might be enough to punch through all of this freaky interference but... what then? We'd just have one huge broadcasting signal on our hands, what do we do with it?

'Well sure. I mean it'll be a little difficult from way out here. Heh. Our little trailer might have some trouble with processing all that info...'

'What, do you think I use anything less than the best equipment? Don't worry about it, Duke. You just patch me through and tell me when you need me. Good luck, okay?

'Heh. Coming from you, Devlin, I suppose I should probably faint or something. You're welcome. Now don't screw this up. Nevada out.'

* * *

**04:18 am, New York, 9****th**** Avenue, Main Broadcasting Studio 6****. **

_Ring ring. Ring ring. Ring ring. _

'Ishizu, listen!'

'A phone call? Mistress...'

Wait a moment. Hello? Who is... Serenity Wheeler? Yes, of course I remember you. This _is_ Ishizu, you have the right number but Serenity, how in the name of the gods did you manage to get a _phone call_ through the magical interference?'

'You're _what_?

'Stop. I'm an Egyptologist, Miss Wheeler, not a computer programmer; I have no idea what you just said

'Oh, neither do you. Yes. But couldn't he take this call himself instead of expecting you to rattle off info you don't...? Oh, right. Yes, I see. He's calling everyone else. This must be turning into quite the collaborative project. At any rate, we're not in Egypt right now. We're in... Well, we're in New York. Yes, that New York.

'It's a long story, I'm sure you don't have time. Fortunately for you, a TV Studio is exactly where we happen to be.

'Yes, fortuitous isn't it? I knew it. I knew all along the Millennium Magic would not steer me wrong. Not _this_ time. Not with so much at state. A residual magical energy remains within me, as it does within us all. I think it may have been enough to trigger a psychic reaction. Maybe this place _is_ the key to helping Yugi.

'No, what I mean is, I know why we were _sent_ here. It wasn't chance or fortune at all, it was _fate_.

'Yes, I know, you don't believe in such things. But our current location is _uncannily_ beneficial. This is fate of a more individual kind, Serenity, the fate that people create for themselves out of their own will. Perhaps Yugi wanted us to be here now, whether he realises it or not. This is all part of the plan. But... you're right, of course, this is no time for discussion. Tell us what you need from us and we'll do it. And hurry. We are quickly running out of time.

'...Of course. Good luck to you too.'

_*__**Click**__.*_

'Ishizu, is everything alright? Who was that?'

'Serenity Wheeler, currently on her way to Kaiba Corporation in Tokyo Japan. And yes, Marik, I think it just _might_ be alright now. Or at least things aren't as dark as they seemed before. We have a chance. I need you to both listen very carefully to my instructions... l I knew it. I _knew_ this was where we had to be. The Millennium necklace spoke true once again after all.'

* * *

_Ring ring. Ring ring. Ring ring. _

_Ring ring. Ring ring. Ring ring. _

_Ring ring. Ring ring. Ring ring. _

_Ring ring. Ring ring. Ring ring. _

_Ring ring. Ring ring. Ring ring. _

_Ring ring. Ring ring. Ring ring. _

_Ring ring. Ring ring. Ring ring. _

_Ring ring. Ring ring. Ring ring. _

_Ring ring. Ring ring. Ring ring. _

_***Click.***_


	18. Chapter 18

**I'm... not sure what to say. This chapter has been a ridiculously long time coming, and I do apologise for taking such a long time with it. I know it's far from perfect but I think I at least got the feel of it down okay and really do want to complete this... It'll be nice to have something completed for a change. **

* * *

Chapter Eighteen.

_Yami Bakura reaches outwards, and the darkness spreads, intermingling with itself, like two armies fighting against opposing targets for the same goal._

_Beneath the known plane of human awareness, lies the Shadow realm. An intricate series of pathways and connections spreading darkness throughout the world. It's as unstoppable as the earth's rotation, and as much a part of the world as anything else. Here and there, it crosses over, our world coming into contact with its borders and allowing some of that darkness to seep through._

_However, there was no saying that such exchanges could not work the other say. That is what happens now. Under a somewhat reluctant Dark spirit's guidance, the human world is being pushed back into the darkness beneath. Radio signals, satellite signals, and bursts of electricity are being carried through the Shadow Realm itself, hitchhiking on the back of the powerful dark signals crossing the globe. The darkness eating into the heart of the world is also being used against itself, as Yami Bakura sends trails of energy flickering and burning throughout the telecommunications systems of the planet._

_It starts with a single mobile phone in the south of Japan, then spreads outwards as effectively as a virus, moving from one system to the next, from one computer to another, and then from one country to the globe. The entire world is slowly blossoming into a complicated system of darkness powered machinery. Duke Devlin talks his way into Kaiba Corp with nothing but his nerve and the evidence of a mobile phone glowing like a dark light. And then Yami Bakura goes to work once more._

_He won't pretend to understand such things as computers, but then he doesn't have to. His magic does it all for him. He works, sending his dark magic deep into the computer systems of Kaiba Corporation, just as he would send such power reeling throughout a living body, to manipulate and control them as he saw fit. His dark magic burst through all of Kaiba corps firewalls and security programs as if they weren't there (no technology could truly interfere with such dark power as his, he thought smugly) and began their systematic takeover of the entire planet's computer systems._

_This was the signal that Rebecca Hawkins, sitting in her trailer in North America, has been waiting for. Knowing that there is no way an idea such as this would be accepted by any government bodies, she bypasses asking permission entirely and begins to hack the United Nations central computer systems. Messages are sent back and forth in a hurried rush as Companies create joint ventures and link ups where none have ever been created before. Schrodinger Corp comes to life in the darkness, forging digital connections across the globe. And, in a move which will later shock business dealers the world over (provided that anyone in the world still exists in order to be amazed) I2 lowers its software walls to allow access to Kaiba Corp's mainframe. Decades of company secrets pour between them in the process, but this is unimportant. What is important is that they combine and pool their resources as no digital systems ever have before, nor ever will again. The world begins to use the darkness as its means of regaining communication._

_Yam Bakura is not exactly certain how they are going to get the darkness back out again, but oh well. One dilemma at a time. He still has that puny Other Half of his to think about…_

_'Alright, littler Ryou, let's see what you do with _this.'

* * *

**The Danube River, Epicentre. ****5:01 am**

A quick glimpse at his (amazingly still-working) watch told Yugi that it was almost morning. At this time of year, the sun should have been rising, a glistening orange over the Danube, turning the grey-green waters gold. On their first day in Vienna, they had gone to the river just to watch that sunrise, trying to enjoy the moment even though they had already sensed the danger that was approaching.

'You're sure it worked?' Téa asks for the umpteenth time, still unconvinced that they can trust Yami Bakura to deliver their message, much less play his part in full.

'Oh, he took my message alright,' Ryou mutters, sounding confident. His tone immediately changed to uncertainty, however. 'Whether or not the plan overall will succeed anyway is another matter. We're putting an awful lot of weight on the Other Self's abilities… and upon Rebecca.'

His doubt is understandable. This plan is effectively held together with chewing gum and raw human nerve. Yami squeezes Yugi's shoulder lightly. 'If this works, then they should be able to contact us soon. That is if Yami Bakura is trust worthy and will allow it.'

'I think he is,' Bakura says, calmly. Tristan and Joey look at him as if he has a screw loose, but they can't deny that Bakura's hope is the only thing holding them together right now. Téa bites her lip and rubs the back of her palm where the imprint of a permanent marker used to be so very long ago.

Yugi thinks of Pegasus (_Item Holder, bereaved, tried to kill them once_), Schrodinger (_bitter and enraged and maybe they can't trust _him_ entirely, not yet, but there's still his brother; surely they can rely on Leon_?), Devlin (_trustworthy, friend now, If anyone can make this work it's him_), and Rebecca (_who loves him, as he loves her, easily the most trustworthy of them all and so smart_). He imagines them interacting, connecting, working together via the very shadows that had previously held them back, as Yami Bakura opens the dark pathways. He imagines them all working together to tie into the satellite systems in every country on the globe, sees them joining with Marik, signals becoming messages becoming stories.

Because that's what this is, really, isn't it? Right now their lives all depend upon a story. And a name. They all stand together silently in the shadows, hanging onto one another for comfort, praying this works. Slowly, Kaiba raises his phone to his face and dials a number…

Before them the shield of darkness pulses with veins of familiar, ugly energy. The pavement shudders. Yugi clutches his phone tightly in one hand, and Yami's hand even tighter in the other, and prays that this will work. _'Come on guys… you can _do_ this.'_

They continue to wait.

* * *

**11:35 am, Kaiba Corporation Main Headquarters, Domino City, Tokyo, Japan. **

'What... is he doing?' Serenity whispers. Duke wishes he had an answer for her, but he can't think of one which won't send her reeling in a panic. They watch as Yami Bakura sits in the central chair of Kaiba's office (he'd enjoyed getting in here _far_ too much), his body glowing with a strange dark energy that reminds Duke all too much of the darkness on board the Kaiba Corporation blimp, during Battle City. All that fury and pain and all those shadows growing from within... he's typing, but Duke thinks that must be for show. No way does Yami Bakura actually honestly know what he's doing.

He remembers this, and thinks he must be crazy for allowing Yami Bakura to do what he is doing.

'What he has to, I think. And the best thing we can do is stay right here and make sure he doesn't try any funny business. I certainly don't want to have to explain to Kaiba when he gets back that we let a crazed maniac run rampant with his company's computers, do you? ' Duke says eventually. Behind them stand the security guards of Kaiba Corp, looking bewildered and confused, but fortunately none of them seem to be making a move to stop whatever Yami Bakura is doing... They are watching Duke warily anyway, trailing their weapons back and forth between him and Yami Bakura.

Duke is still amazed by the fact that they got in here in the first place, but a coded message from Seto Kaiba, including his own secret passwords and code words all spoken in the correct order and language had been difficult to deny. Duke would be worried about Kaiba Corp's security issues if it weren't for those guns they have pointed straight at him... Kaiba may have given them permission for this, but that doens't mean they're going to let they guard down for one moment.

Still, that doesn't mean they have to be comfortable about the strange faced man sitting in their employer's Big Chair and spitting dark energy in to the computer console before him.

'You know, you can stop trailing your guns on us any time now, boys,' Yami Bakura chuckles. 'Believe me, if I wanted to do anything to you, your pathetic little bullets wouldn't do you a great deal of good.

'Bakura trusts his other self,' Serenity says faintly. 'Do you think he's right to?'

'Well, nobody knows him like Bakura does,' Duke swallowed. 'I don't see what else we can do. Yami Bakura ins't usually _dishonest_, Serenity. Therein lies the danger.'

'Then... what he said to us before,' Serenity continues, still seeming unconvinced. 'About Yami Yugi letting the darkness into the world by refusing to die. Do you think it's true?'

'I... don't know. Maybe.' Duke says, knowing this will not satisfy Serenity, but at least the conversation is distracting her from the guns that are currently being pointed at their backs. 'Ishizu said that the ceremony was necessary to close the gap between this world and the Shadow Realm... Yugi won the duel against the Pharaoh, so for a few moments he became the most powerful being in the world.'

'And he used that power to give Yami his life instead of to take it away, yes, I know. My brother told me,' Serenity says. 'But what he didn't explain was what the _consequences_ of that would be... without the Pharaoh... the gateways remained open didn't they? All of this could've been the result of that'

''Ren, don't,' Duke says softly, squeezing her hand in his. 'It might not work like that. How're we supposed to know how the Shadows work? There's no sense in getting upset about this now. We can't change the results of the Ceremonial Duel and we can't undo what's happened here.'

'I know, I know, it's just... My brother is out there right now. He's fighting, Duke, just like they all are and... and we're just stood here, watching some crazy guy mess around with a computer,' she clenches her hands into tight fists. 'I feel so _useless_. And if a_ll _of this has _something_ to do with Yugi, if it's somehow all _his_ fault... Well, what are we supposed to _do_ with that information, Duke? What're we supposed to say?'

'Serenity...' Duke's stammered reply is interrupted by a sudden whopping screech from Yami Bakura. Duke feels the temperature in the room dragging by several degrees. 'What...? Yami Bakura, what did you do!'

'What I was _asked_ to do, you foolish mortal,' Yami Bakura laughs. Almost cackles, in fact. Duke can feel Serenity fighting against her urge to shudder in alarm as the room temperature seems to drop several degrees. Duke can hear rifles cocking behind him but doesn't move an inch as Yami Bakura gets to his feet, hands still outstretched to touch the screen of the computer, laughing. 'So much energy, so much darkness... and all of it manipulated by yours truly.' He glimpses at Serenity, smiling. 'Take a good look, Mouse. _This_ is the extent of the Shadow Realm's power.'

* * *

**12:08 pm, Nevada Desert. **

'Testing, testing one, two, this is Hawkins Base Nevada calling Ishizu Ishtar, Ishtar come in, over.'

For a moment there is no response. Rebecca tries to ignore the static and strangeness tingling in her fingers as she twists the knobs and dials of her computer, trying to tune into the Ishtar's signal. It doesn't seem to be working. There's just not enough power left in her systems, not with the Shadow Realm messing up her energy sources. But slowly, Rebecca realises, this disadvantage is being undone. The power signals her computers are giving off are increasing minute by minute, second by second. _Something_ is powering up her computer...

An Ishizu still isn't responding.

She sighs. 'Damn. Maybe they just haven't gotten the computers online yet.'

Grandpa coughs. 'Maybe so... Ah, and dear, not that I doubt your abilities, but are you quite certain the telecommunications system should be _glowing_ like that?'

'Don't worry about it, Grandpa. I know what I'm doing.' Rebecca nods. Though in truth, _glowing_ does not seem the correct word for it. Glowing implies light, and there's no light in this cabin except for what comes from the lamps. What was coming from their machines right now was the exact opposite of light. A sort of anti-light. Which make absolutely no sense whatsoever but hell, what about the Shadow Realm ever _does_? Rebecca is trying very hard not to think about exactly what is powering their computers right now. She grits her teeth, speaking into the microphone again. If things get desperate, she thinks, she can probably use Morse code, but that will be slow, and she's not even sure any members of the Ishtar family know it.

'Repeat testing, this is Rebecca Hawkins, running a call through _the_ weirdest, dark magic powered telecommunication system ever utilised, please respond Ishtar.'

Rebecca twists the dial again. The static trembling down the line is mixed with a strange, almost guttural moaning sound, as if the machines around her are crying in pain. Rebecca shudders, trying to ignore the darkness running in trails up and down her spine.

'Testing... oh, _darn_ it, I sound like a trucker or something, Ishizu, are you guys there or not!'

The third time, it seems, is the charm. Amidst the staticy-moaning sound another voice comes into being. _'...Re...ecca_? _Rebecca Hawkins, is that you?_'

Rebecca beams. 'Yes! Yes, I've got you, Ishizu, coming in loud and... And not so clear. Just let me try and boost your signal!' She twists a few more knobs but only succeeds in making the computer scream at her. 'Damn! Sorry, this is as good as I can get it. How are things where you are? Is the link up in progress?'

'_From w...t I can ascertain, then yes. But I won't pre...tend to understand a...y of this, Miss Hawkins. How are we even able to comm...icate? The Dark Energy of the Shadow Realm is blocking every satellite sig...al in the world.' _

'Well, according to Devlin's email, that's all Yami Bakura's doing, believe it or not,' Rebecca explains bluntly. 'Dunno how he did it, but somehow he's using his own dark powers to influence the telecommunications systems. He's breaking through the dark energy blocking our communications by overpowering it with his _own_ darkness. Or some weird magic stuff like that. Don't know if we can really trust him, but right now, he's the only hope we have.'

'_Ah. Then we are attem...ing to fight fire with fire. Interesting. I'll deal with the magic, Miss Ha...kins. You deal with the comp...ter wizardry. My brothers seem to know what they are d...ing.' _

'Great, the former, evil wannabe-dictator knows his way around a film studio. I probably shouldn't be surprised,' Rebecca licks her lips nervously. While still talking to Ishizu, she begins to transmit a message to Kaiba Corporation in Japan, watching uneasily as the terribly slow email makes its way across the globe. _So much for the information superhighway._ 'I'm informing Duke of the link up now. In a matter of minutes we should have Kaiba Corporation, I2 and Schrodinger Corp central mainframe computers online and working in cahoots. From there it should be a pretty simple deal for me to hack the military and then the worldwide cable network... That's when you should start seeing something happening where you are. With any luck.'

_Simple_, she called it, but secretly Rebecca is shaking in her boots. They are, after all, in the middle of attempting to link together several major computer systems (in companies which normally serve the _gaming industry_ of all things –why do _they_ have some of the most powerful systems in the world anyway, Rebecca would love to know?) Then she has to access the military computers and add their power to the link up (without the CIA coming down on her within twenty five seconds), then she has to use all of that power to create a single television and radio signal to be broadcasted simultaneously around the entire globe.

And all of this had to be monitored, processed, and coordinated by a fifteen year old girl, sitting in a tiny computer shack in the middle of the Nevada desert. Oh, and some of the countries who's military unit she has to take over? Have nuclear missiles. S_well_. No pressure.

'_And then?'_

'And then you'll just have to hope I'm the genius I say I am. If this has all worked the way we anticipated, then the only problem should be keeping my terminal from exploding due to the sudden power influx...' Rebecca replies. 'Now... what to say when we make the link up? How do I tell everyone we're ready?'

'_As I understand it Re...ecca_,' Ishizu's broken voice comes back after a moment. '_Then the message is simple. They have already been informed on what is taking place here and wh..t they need to do, they are simply waiting. The only message that you have to send, is "_**Now**_"._'

* * *

**New York, 9th Avenue Television Centre". ****4:16 am**

Marik is standing in front of a huge bank of dark computer terminals in the middle of the 9th Avenue Centre. There are red lights flickering beneath each screen as they slowly warm up. They had activated the power alone, and thus far nobody seems to be paying heed to the fact that the Television centre is lightning up like a Christmas tree in the middle of the night. New York seems more preoccupied with the disaster unfurling on their doorsteps than with people breaking into the television studio, and Ishizu hopes it stays that way.

Still, she can't help wondering why no other guards have come to try and stop them… why the only Guard they've met so far was a half dead mutation.

'When you get down to it, sister, human electrical systems and Shadow magic aren't so different.' Marik says, evenly, gazing intently at the computer screens before him. 'I have a good command of the latter, let's see if I can utilize it as well as Yami Bakura is right now.'

'I don't believe you can Mind Crush a computer terminal, Master Marik,' Odion says, dryly.

Marik chuckles. 'Nope. But in all my travels while searching for the seven millennium items, do you think I never learned to find my way around a computer?' He presses several buttons, the meaning of which Ishizu doesn't understand. Then Marik steps away from the console as the bank of screens before them blossom into light. The entire room begins glowing as the computer terminals of every machine in the building are activated. But there is something strange about it… something not quite normal. The computers moan rather than hum and whisper rather than click or screech. Ishizu reaches out a hand towards the nearest terminal, and feels her skin crackling with a very familiar energy.

Shadow Magic, Ishizu realizes in awe and surprise. The computers are all being powered by Shadow Magic.

'Yami Bakura,' Odion says, faintly. 'He did it. The connection has been realized.'

'Fire with fire,' Ishizu realizes with slow amazement. 'He's utilizing the very same power that was blocking worldwide communications to _reactivate_ those connections. The entire world is running on Shadow power. He must have accessed the government mainframes… I have to admit, it's impressive.'

'_Testing... oh, d...rn it, I sound like a trucker or so...thing, Ishizu, are you guys th...e or not!' _

The three Ishtar's exchange a look of disbelief. Then Ishizu lunges for the computer and the nearest microphone. _'_Rebecca? Rebecca Hawkins, is that you?'

* * *

**10:35 pm, Miami, Schrodinger Corp Main Tech****. **

Leon can hardly believe what he is seeing. Honestly, this blows any fairytale he's ever read clean out of the water. His technicians and employees buzz around the main computer terminals of the central lab, clearly struggling to believe what they're seeing, as the signals between Kaiba Corporation and Schrodinger steadily open up to one another. Unable to quite take in that two such massive rivals are pooling their resources in such a way.

Or maybe they're more disturbed by the fact that the computers all seem to be crackling with a strange black-white energy.

Only half as many as there should be. The workers h still has all seem to be developing nervous twitches, wringing their hands tugging their hair, biting their lips. Whatever is happening is spreading across the whole world like a bad dream. Leon can feel it tugging at his heart and tickling furiously in the back of his brain. He takes a deep breath and tries his hardest to pretend that everything about this is totally normal.

And as Leon watches, the mainframes of Kaiba Corporation, I2 and Schrodinger are beginning to come together as one. Years of company secrets and advancements are pouring into the gaps between their systems, but Leon doesn't care. He simply starts to bark out orders like a man three times his age, doing just as Pegasus had advised him. 'Alright, Maxwell, send a message to the following address: _rhawkins dot shiningfriend at nevada central dot com forward slash urgent_. Then… ' Leon takes a deep breath. 'Then hand over control of our main computer system to Kaiba Corporation. '

I…' The man at the main terminal hesitates, staring at Leon as if his superior has gone insane. Leon doesn't blame him. Just thinking about doing something like this a day earlier would have probably cost the man his job. 'But… Mister Schrödinger, sir, don't you think we should wait for your brother? The company policy states that—'

'I already told you, _he's_ the one who gave permission for this,' Leon says quickly, lying blatantly. He'd even gone so far as to fake his brother's signature, even though technically, only two members out of their circle of leaders need to be in agreement. All he knows right now is that there are more important thing at stake than the Schrödinger's fortune. That the world is turning upside down and that this might be their only hope… His brother will be mad, but right now, Leon is willing to accept that.

He isn't sure whether to thank Rebecca for opening him up to these things, to a world of real fairytale nightmares beyond the safe solidity of digital reality and storybooks, or to curse her.

'Look, even as we speak I2 is doing exactly the same thing as we are, opening up their information and linking out systems together along with KC. When the connection starts to happen don't fight it, don't reject anything you're seeing. Just let our mainframes come together. Kaiba corp. will do all the work from there.'

'S- sir, really, even if that were acceptable, there's no way our systems are set up for such a combination! Our technology is incompatible! And these readings… a few hours ago our systems were barely functioning at all, thanks to whatever's happening out there, and yet now the power in our systems is going off the charts! Frankly, this isn't normal; if the power ratings increase any more than the entire mainframe will go into total shut down! Shouldn't we close down the power and call for help?'

'No. Pegasus said to expect something like this,' Leon mutters uneasily. 'I wouldn't bother calling the energy company, they have absolutely no control over what's happening to our systems right now,' Leon shudders, struggling to keep his cool. After all, if this all turned out to be some kind of elaborate trick, then he might've just flushed Schrodinger corps business down the pan. 'The merger will happen, Maxwell. I'm certain of it.'

'But sir, that's… '

'Impossible? Yesterday I would've agreed with you but as you can probably tell from the weird energy emanating from your terminal, Maxwell, we're no longer working to the rules of yesterday.'

'…I don't understand, sir,' Maxwell frowns intently. 'Even if this is possible, then what on earth are we going to _do_ with all of that power?'

'Use the satellites, of course,' Leon smiles faintly. 'We're interconnecting everything.'

A few seconds later, every computer in the room seems to moan in unison; a strange, unnatural sound not at all like any computer Leon has ever heard before. The technicians and white coats all around him tense and jump away in horror. As Leon watches, a bead of sweat runs slowly down his forehead. _Damn it, Siegfried, I really hope you're not gonna get mad at me for this…_

'This is it. It's starting.'

* * *

**The Danube River, Shadow Realm Nexus Point. ****5:20 am**

Their connection to Rebecca is thin and fragile, maintained by only the faintest of links with the shadows. All the power they have is being directed elsewhere. So she explains quickly, as best she can, in a language only Kaiba really understands.

'_Not sure, really. But wh...ever info gets lost in the transfer between companies is gon...a be your problem Kaiba, not mine. At least wh...ever info they get is going to be sent back in retu... And the Shadow Magic which is effectively running the entire sy...em right now is just ignoring your firewalls and blo...ades anyway. We're talking an al... open system here, Kaiba. It's the only way this is gonna work_.'

' _Urgh_. Alright, fair enough, if that's the best you can do,' Seto sounds rather pained, and Yugi half doens't blame him. They _are_ talking about exposing his entire empire to his enemies here. 'Make sure you isolate the National Defence Grids and make sure nobody gets the impression that we're aiming to blow them to kingdom come. The last thing we want is everyone assuming we're trying to instigate World War Three.'

'_Duh? You don't think I alr...y thought of that_?' Rebecca's angry voice comes back down the line, and Yugi almost laughs because it's just so good to hear her voice, loud and proud and still ready to shout down a castle, even in the middle of the apocalypse. '_Anyway, we're attaching to the news broadcasting systems and bypassing the ...st of them, we won't be any...re _near_ the special defence grids_.'

'We _will_ be when you start hacking the satellites.'

'Oh, _I already planned that far ah...d, trust me, Kaiba, I'm an_ _expert_.' Rebecca sounds tetchy, and Yugi would've smiled if not for the air of anxiety under her proclamation. Téa reaches out and sneaks her arm around Tristan's for comfort. Joey intertwines his fingers with Mai's. Everyone is silent, listening in on Kaiba's conversation with Rebecca, hoping to god that they know what they're doing and this whole plan isn't about to come falling down on their heads like so much radioactive fallout.

'Fine.' Kaiba says. 'Just don't let any of those imbeciles in on the company's reserved folders.' He pauses for a second before adding, rather grudgingly. 'I have to admit, you're a good kid, Rebecca Hawkins.'

'_Heh. Com...ng from you, Kaiba, I suppose I should probably faint. If anything's going to happen then... well, you should be se...ng it in about five minutes, if not..._' she trails off, uneasily. '_Is Yugi there?_'

'He's right next to me.'

'_Can you put him on the line for me? Just for a m...nt_?'

Seto passes the phone to Yugi, who takes it in a hand which, to his credit, is barely shaking at all. 'Hey there, 'Becca.'

'_**Don't you "Hey th...e, 'Becca" me**_!' Rebecca snaps at him, so loudly that her anger almost breaks their brittle connection. Her voice blurs and hisses for a few moments, and Yugi rubs his ear in pain, before Rebecca's voice. _'I know what's go...g on here, Mutou, and I don't like it!_'

Yugi wavers, not quite certain how to respond. 'Rebecca, I—'

'_Do you know how long I was out here before any of you even got ar...nd to contacting me?_' Rebecca interrupts angrily. '_I've been out here for days, Yugi! _Days_, stuck in a ca...per van in the middle of a desert! Wondering why everyone is being so cr...zy on TV, and why you didn't think to even t...ll me about it! And the first thing I hear about it is that you're go...g to throw yourself into a d...th-trap! And that I have to help you _do _it?_'

Yugi swallows. He has no idea how to respond, no idea how to make it all make sense.

When they had first met, Rebecca had been an angry, frustrated little girl. She hadn't fit in with other kids her age because she was much too bright for them; she had scared them, and scared the teachers who were worried they wouldn't be able to handle her without ruining her, all that brain in such a small body... And yet for all her intelligence, Rebecca had still been just eight year old child, who needed her teddy bear. Its eight years later, and Rebecca isn't that person anymore. Yugi can't fix all this with a few kind words, a thrown bet and a gifted card.

So now here he is, a young man standing in the middle of a deserted, death filled city, besides a wall of destruction which could tear apart the whole planet, with his friends at his side and a terrified little girl trying to talk to him down the telephone. Thus is Yugi's life.

'_So... you g...t what this all could mean for you... ight?' _Rebecca says. '_Don't tell me that you don't. I know you_.'

'I know. But It'll all be okay, Rebecca, believe me, you know there's no other way to do this—'

'_What ga...bage! I'm not a li...le kid anymore, don't treat me like I don't understand, My grandfather discovered how powerful duel cards are in the first place, Yugi... and he told all of that stuff to me. I know what you using all this pow...r means. If it goes wrong or... or even if everything goes perfectly... it could still kill you, c...n't it?_'

'I'm sorry,' Yugi sighs. He moves away from the rest of the group, trying to ignore their anxious and suspicious stares; especially the glare of Yami who is hearing this whole conversation in his head. 'Rebecca... do you trust me?'

'...'

'Because I trust you, you know. With everything. Even with Yami. You know that, Rebecca. Now I'm asking you for the same trust back in return.'

'_Shut up! Idiot, I_... _I don't know_.' She sounds close to tears, as if only raw nerves and sinew are holding her together. '_You don't always tell me the _truth_. Neither of you do. And now... you expect me to do this for you and... and I do...'t know what it all means! Yugi_—'

'Rebecca,' Yugi repeats, cutting off her rant before it can begin. 'It's _okay_.'

There is a moment of silence, except for a sound like sniffling down the line. '_Y-Yugi_?'

'Yeah?'

'_Um. Connections w...ing. Gotta hang up now. Work to do_.'

Yugi nods slowly, even though she can't see it. He wishes he could reach out and hug her. He wishes he could explain exactly what is about to happen. He wishes he was smart enough to speak to her on her terms, in her language. He wishes he could tell his friends what it's like, to be here at the centre of their expectations. He wishes he could tell them all how much they mean to him and make it obvious. But he can't do any of those things, so instead he opens his mouth.

'Okay. Seeya later... 'He says, and then he pauses. 'And Rebecca? You've _never_ been just some little kid. Yugi out.'

* * *

**12:12 pm, Nevada Desert. Point Zero. **

Rebecca Hawkins reaches her hand into the drawer in her desk and pulls out her duelling deck.

The card on top is the same one it's always been, ever since she was eight years old. She's never used it; always takes it out of her deck before starting (after all, most duels play for an ante these days and with it being a one of a kind, it pretty much counts as the rarest thing her family's ever owned: even rarer than her grandpa's torn Blue Eyes White Dragon). She doesn't want to risk losing it to someone who doesn't understand. Even to this day, she has no idea what it would actually do if she laid it on the field.

She can feel her grandpa staring at her from behind and leans back into him when he reaches out to touch her shoulder, hanging onto him for stability and courage.

'I... grandpa?'

'So then,' Grandpa says, warmly. 'Ready to take on the world again, are we? Just like your mother before you. Just like your grandfather. I admit neither I nor your mother know a great deal about these machines of yours, but—

He cuts off when Rebecca lunges around and buries her face into his jacket, feeling five years old again, a little kid in need of comfort. A part of her curses her own immaturity. This is absolutely not the way for somebody to react when they're about to hack into a delicate and highly classified government agency to try and save the world before it blows up in their faces. She cries a bit anyway. "Grandpa" means that's okay.

Rebecca mumbles something into his jacket, speaking mostly to herself. 'What's that, Rebecca?'

'...Love h'm.'

'I know, sweetheart. I've always known. And now, I know you'll make me proud, and do what it is you have to do.'

Rebecca sniffs, wiping her eyes on grandpa's shirt, and takes one last look at the card in her hand. _The Ties of Friendship_ stares back at her with an almost accusing brightness, As if it's asking her what she's thinking... If she can really do what she's about to do.

'Idiot.' She hisses at it through her teeth, angrily wiping away the tears before then can even start to think about falling. 'Of _course_ I trust him.'

Then she puts the card back into the drawer, forces her trembling hands to still, types a single word into the communications system, and presses "send".

The connections open within a matter of minutes. At first, the UN isn't even aware of the hacker racing through their government files, digging out the source codes she needs to take complete control of the entire system. At the same time hackers are at work in I2's main headquarters, and Leon too is racing through codes at lightning speed in the basement of Schrodinger corps main technological department. The UN technicians find themselves locked out of every system, their satellites control being diverted to a completely different location. At the same time, the missile silos and attack barracks of every country, war machine and submarine known to man are blocked off, cutting off the possibility of any military leaders getting the wrong idea and launching an attack on whichever enemy country sprung to mind when they thought about launching an attack. Three hackers work as one to connect and link entirely disparate systems; systems which under normal circumstances, would not even have been compatible.

But there is nothing more powerful than Shadow magic, especially not when it's under the control of an intelligent human mind. Shadow magic does not work as human computers do. It isn't blocked by incompatible systems or different brand names or antivirus software. It isn't held back by distance or signal or connectivity. Carrying out so many tasks at once is almost nothing with Yami Bakura's distant guidance. Slowly but surely (at least by computer standards), a fifteen year old girl is coordinating every satellite on the planet, and sending a message to the 9th Avenue television studio: _begin countdown_.

_Five..._

_Four..._

_Three..._

_Two..._

_One... _

* * *

**12:13 pm, Las Vegas Police Station. **

The shift of the day workers at the Las Vegas Police Station was ending just in time for the nightmare to begin for the night workers, crammed into staffrooms and laboratories and offices, confronted with the increasing rash of disturbances and attacks and general confusion filtering in from the streets.

Marianna Decker, acting Sergeant for the night department, did not like what she was seeing at all. First there had been that chaos with the virtual monsters all over America a few years ago, then the flood almost wiping out downtown New York, and now what seemed like some kind of country wide turf war was in action. Cells were filled to bursting with people dragged in from the street, half of them screaming... half of them begging for _something_, she wasn't sure what, with strange, white tears in their eyes.

Decker was too acclimatized to the bizarre by now to dismiss these things as a simple turf war, but it wasn't until the final cell (not exactly where she'd want them putting; these people were terrified, not criminals, but what else could they do?) was filled with a screaming woman, eyes wide and bugging from her face, mouth open in a constant wail, hair torn from her head, that she honestly began to worry. Began to think about taking extra precautions, calling in back up from the other shifts. It didn't help that half of her staff seemed distracted, confused or were absent altogether, and those who were focussed enough to do their job were being endlessly held back and sidetracked by the people who weren't. Just a few minutes ago she'd had to send her second in command home, because the poor man had been sitting in the corner shaking himself into uselessness. He'd never made it. Right now he was sitting in the corridor outside her office sobbing, ignoring every attempt from co workers and on site Doctor's to tell him what was wrong. And the longer they spoke to him, the more they seemed like they wanted to tear out their hair themselves.

Madness. The whole thing. Absolute madness. So when the report came in about the Luxor on the main strip being consumed in a fire and that people were filling the streets with a tide of violence and confusion, Decker wasn't so much surprised as vaguely, painfully resigned. The world, it seemed, was coming down around her ears, and there was no sign of an encroaching morning to scare away the shadows. Maybe there never would be again.

These were silly thoughts, of course, Decker told herself firmly. Silly and unrealistic. The world would still be here tomorrow. The world always _was_ still there tomorrow, no matter what she saw on the streets the night before. No matter how many ugly examples of human contempt and cruelty she had to put up with at night, she could still go home in the morning to her family. These were the things that Sergeant Decker clung to as the world went to hell all around her.

Wrapped up in the chaos around her, in the crying children huddled on benches in the waiting room and the desperate requests for aid from her staff, it took Decker a few moments to notice that somebody had switched on the television which she had explicitly asked to be turned off, since the news reports weren't getting through anyway and the black and white glare of the screen had been hurting her eyes. Now the eyes of half the people in the waiting room were fixed quite firmly on that screen, trying to bite down their fear enough for them to make out what was happening.

But there is no black and white static now. Instead, she is staring at an actual transmitted image of a large white room, and a nervous looking figure slipping uneasily into view.

'_H...hello there? Can you hear me?' _

* * *

**11:35 am, The Turtle Game Store. **

Grandpa had done exactly as Miss Wheeler had advised him to do as soon as she got off the phone with him: he'd locked the door. It was just as well he had, because from the looks of it, the streets of Tokyo were beginning to riot.

It had happened quickly. Like a damn bursting and releasing a tide of darkness across the world. The tension had been simmering all day; in fact, now that Solomon thought about it, it had been simmering for much longer than that. Over a week, at least. There had been a strange, tickling sensation in the air of something just being not quite right. The very cosmic order had been quaking underneath their feet, and now, Solomon could feel it all the more, tugging at his heart and aching in his chest. Like drowning in sand... He tried to shake such thoughts from his head as nonsense by shuffling the deck of cards in his hand, trying to guess the identity of each card before it appeared.

People were always the same, Solomon thought to himself sadly. For every one of them with the nerve and courage to hold together in spite of everything, for every Joey Wheeler or Téa Gardner or Mai Valentine, there were another ten who insisted on going crazy; and those ten rubbed off on all those around them until a few anxious frowns became a worried chorus, and a worried chorus became a tide of panic as thousands took their frustrated confusion to the streets. It would be almost impossible to tell how much of what was going on outside was genuinely an effect of the Shadow Realms influence, and how much of it was just people panicking other people.

Serenity had called him again a few moments ago, and when Solomon placed the phone down, his hand had tingled with dark energy. It was Yugi, Solomon guessed in the end, or something to do with the fact that they had all had such exposure to Shadow Magic previously. That could be the only reason none of them had gone as crazy as the rest of the world seemed to be going yet. He had no idea how long it would take for the influx of Shadow Magic to get to him too, but he planned to be right here when it happened, waiting for his Grandson with his very last breath.

Yes, old age was definitely making him fatalistic.

He didn't know that the same thing was happening thousands of miles away on the streets of New York, or in the suburbs of Australia, or on the dunes of Cairo. He didn't know that a nervous Australian named Valon had talked his way into the Australian Canberra broadcasting department and was proceeding to convince them to open up on certain frequencies using nothing more than his charm and a few convincing words from the head of Kaiba Corporation. He didn't know of the massive merger of power and technology taking place amongst the three dominating games companies of the world. He didn't know that a terrified teenage girl in Nevada was struggling to bring all of those insane factors together in her little trailer, and praying she didn't inadvertently instigate nuclear war in the process. He didn't know that every machine in the world was currently being filtered through layers upon layers of shadow magic, operating according to strange, dark rules that humanity has never anticipated.

In fact, until his television flickered unexpectedly to life without him so much as touching it, Solomon knew almost nothing at all about what was going on out there. He knew only that things were about to go very horrifically pear shaped, and that his grandsons (their friends bless them because there was no way in heaven or hell that the gods would) were right in the middle of it all.

And then he turned to see the television, staring in surprise as a picture flickered into white life amidst the shadows.

'_H...hello there? Can you all hear me?' _

Solomon Mutou stares at the screen in alarm for a long moment; then he began to smile.


End file.
